PRESS RELEASE

The tiny budget for tourism! Adequate budget allocation is the essential premise for the competitive relaunch of Romanian tourism!

Bucharest, 04/03/2026 – The Romanian Hotel Industry Federation (FIHR) expresses, with utmost concern, its firm position on the need for adequate budgetary allocation for the promotion of Romanian tourism, as a strategic sector of the national economy.

The national budget allocated to tourism promotion was approximately 2 million euros annually, a level significantly lower than that practiced by the states in the region. This budget is over 20 times lower than that allocated by Croatia and over 14 times lower than that of Poland, two of our direct regional competitors (Turkey or Greece have promotion budgets over 50 times higher, with an advance of many years!). This structural underfunding has generated a discontinuous external presence of the tourist destination Romania, fragmented campaigns and the absence of a clear positioning – without support through multiple promotion channels in target markets, without correlation with trends in the tourism market or with performance indicators or systematic evaluation of results, especially in the post-pandemic and regional geo-political context.

In the last 3 years, the tourism sector in Romania has been negatively affected by changes fiscal and economic: unpredictable regulatory framework, marked by increased taxation and inflation, complemented in 2025 by the decrease in the value of holiday vouchers, measures which, according to impact analyses, led to consequences such as:

• increasing prices and decreasing purchasing power, respectively the significant reduction in demand from domestic tourism,
• the lack of competitiveness of tourist packages abroad and the contraction of the volume of investments in the sector, through the decrease in the confidence of investors and foreign tour operator partners,
• In a price-sensitive market, increasing taxation encourages migration to under-regulated, untaxed or unreported tourism from short-term rental apartments. .

If domestic tourism is no longer subsidized by holiday vouchers, as the only public policy to support domestic tourism, and ignoring seasonality through the lack of support measures contributes to the decline of local tourism infrastructure, we consider it necessary that the state to build other public policies and invest in promotion to attract foreign tourists (incoming) to fill the gap left by the decrease in domestic demand and purchasing power, as well as campaigns to attract major events at regional or EU level.

The economic impact of public policies supporting Incoming tourism as a service export

FIHR emphasizes that adequate budget allocation for international promotion should not be seen as an expense, but as an opportunity. strategic investment with multiplier effect. Growth incoming(foreign tourists who spend money in Romania) represents a direct service export, essential for reducing the trade balance deficit. Without funding proportional to the assumed objectives regarding the increase in incoming, for reducing the trade balance deficit in tourism and regional visibility, any promotion strategy remains limited in impact.

In the absence of adequate public policies to stimulate and promote tourism, Romania remains with a low visibility on the EU tourist destination market, at a time when competition for European tourist flows is more intense than ever. In the context where neighboring states invest tens of millions of euros to attract tourist flows, Romania risks becoming an „island of invisibility” on the continent’s tourist map, despite the competitive advantages offered by its status as a full member of the Schengen Area or the country’s natural potential and tourist resources.

Romania has real competitive advantages: extensive natural heritage, unique biodiversity in the EU, recognized cultural heritage, traditional spa resorts, potential for authentic rural and gastronomic tourism, cities with relevant cultural offerings and a stable geopolitical positioning. However, these assets require professional, coherent and sustained promotion, based on data and a clear segmentation of target markets.

To transform this potential into a measurable economic result, adequate budgeting is necessary, by:

1. Increasing the national tourism promotion budget to at least EUR 10 million annually, managed transparently and professionally, with clear performance indicators (KPIs) and annual evaluation of the use of funds. A solution could be to take over the web/mobile platform “Romania Attractiva” developed by MIPE and managing it as a national promotion platform, so as not to wait to build another platform from scratch with a different budget MEDAT. Its use in national promotion campaigns would allow rapid capitalization of digital promotion campaigns targeting the already existing web platform. This could prioritize the allocation of resources from the promotion budget to online marketing campaigns & social media, for content maintenance and completion.
2. National digital platform for reporting tourist traffic, operationalizing an integrated digital system for collecting data from all tourism operators, interoperable with reporting from online booking platforms, according to EU regulations. The operationalization of the platform is essential for substantiating public policies based on real data.
3. Supporting a public policy with a budget for granting the “Incoming Bonus” considered Export of Services. Such public policies to stimulate operators that bring foreign tourists directly contribute to balancing the trade balance in tourism. The system has been and is being applied by countries such as Bulgaria, Albania or Poland.
4. Strengthening the capacity of the WCO-s by building/adapting the regulatory framework for the coherent and representative functioning of Destination Management Organizations at local and national level, through financing with resources collected from promotion fees or from the national promotion budget.

Tourism contributes significantly to employment, the health of the population, regional development and the export of services. The implementation of targeted international promotion campaigns, the realization of strategic partnerships with international air operators and tour operators it can be done based on real and coherent reporting, which supports the strategic decision-making process and ensures tax collection and monitoring of results.

We declare our willingness to actively engage in dialogue with public authorities to build policies and strategic partnerships that will bring value and concrete results in the coming years, including:

• Organizing promotional events/actions in conjunction with participation in relevant international tourism fairs, maximizing impact and visibility.
• Strategic partnerships with providers of reports, statistics and marketing campaigns, specialized in targeting consumers - tourists, by directing targeted online marketing campaigns, with measurable results on each of the tourist source countries.
• Active involvement in the development of the National Destination Management Organization (DMO), a vital project for coherent and sustainable management of tourism promotion at the national level.
• Developing and testing the digital platform for reporting tourist circulation and updating the related legislation, according to EU Regulations and Directives and the Schengen Treaty - an essential step for proper tourism statistics, regulations correlated with real figures, developing a marketing strategy based on data and not on estimates.

We ask for a real public-private partnership, sustained dialogue, consultation and predictability in building public policies with an impact on tourism, allocation of an adequate budget for tourism promotion, as detailed here, which will provide Romania with the necessary resources to occupy its rightful place on the European and global tourism market.

The Romanian Hotel Industry Federation makes a public and urgent appeal to MEDAT, the Ministry of Finance and, in particular, to the Prime Minister of the Romanian Government: It is imperative to allocate a substantial budget of at least 10 million Euros annually with gradual growth over the next 3 years, strategically used and well defined through public policies to support and promote tourism, as a measure to develop the regional competitiveness of the Romanian tourist destination.

About FIHR The Romanian Hotel Industry Federation (FIHR) is the first employers' organization in Romanian tourism, with 35 years of uninterrupted activity, present in 28 counties. FIHR is a key dialogue and consultation partner for the authorities. The Federation is a member of the Alliance for Tourism (APT), the Concordia Employers' Confederation and is internationally affiliated with HOTREC - the voice of hospitality in Europe. More details on: www.fihr.ro