TOURISM - AN UNEXPLOITED CURRENCY RESERVE

As Professor Radu Pencea writes, tourism is one of the economic fields that might act as safety buoys against worsening effects of the crisis.

Romania’s tourist attractions consist of both seaside and mountain resorts, but also rural areas with much sought-after bio-products. Yet contrary to other European countries where tourism brings has a great contribution to the GDP, Romania is ranked last in Europe after this criterion: sales of tourism services amounted to only 1,753 billion Dollars last year, which means 80 Dollars for each inhabitant. By comparison, Austria gained 1.785 Dollars/inhabitant, while Cyprus had even more: 2.872 dollars/ inhabitant. The causes for this situation are low quality accommodation and poor infrastructure, states Professor Pencea, who thinks that this issue should be closely tackled and quickly solved, as tourism is an alternative resource, which should be seriously exploited by Romanian authorities, especially during the economic crisis.