Romania popular among Austrian tourists

Nearly five per cent of people travelling to Romania are Austrians, new figures show.The National Statistics Institute (INS) announced today (Fri) that 4.8 per cent of all holidaymakers who chose Romania in April came from Austria. The agency added that, with 61.7 per cent, a majority of tourists were European Union (EU) citizens.Hungarians take the lion’s share among people staying overnight in Romania with around 35 per cent, followed by Bulgarian travellers (18.5 per cent) and Germans with over nine per cent.Hotels and guesthouses in the Eastern European (EE) country – which joined the EU in 2004 – accommodated 433,300 holidaymakers and business travellers in April 2011, according to the Romanian Times. Around 979,000 overnight stays were registered that month.Meanwhile, tourism officials in Austria said hotels in the Alpine country recorded 62.04 million overnight stays between last November and April of this year. They explained this was a decrease of 1.1 per cent compared to the previous winter holiday season. The vast majority of stays were booked by foreigners.Romania, Russia and other countries in EE are considered as key markets by hotel managers in Austria as the number of Germans coming to the country is in decline. German summertime tourists and skiers have played an important role in Austria’s tourism industry, while some experts have criticised hotels for doing too little about attracting Austrians to spend their vacation in their home country.