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Some tour operators in the Danube Delta have begun to receive groups of foreign tourists again in winter, after for two years these visits had been canceled due to the pandemic, and now they hope that the effects of the situation in Ukraine will not affect them as much as in 2014.
Iliuta Goean, a tour guide in the Danube Delta, told AGERPRES that birdwatching and winter photography tours are very attractive for tourists due to the many species of birds that nest in this area.
In Dobrogea, the stars of winter are the geese, especially those with a red neck, but also the greater white-fronted goose and lesser white-fronted goose, the last very rare.
"Foreign birdwatchers want to see their behavior in their natural environment. But there are still a lot of birds that winter here. I found, for example, a white-billed diver. It is the first documentaries in Dobrogea and the third in Romania. It is a great attraction because it is a bird coming from the north of Russia and not all the world has the opportunity to reach northern Siberia for this species," Iliuta Goean said.
In the Delta, Dalmatian pelicans are in January and February in nuptial plumage, so they are never more beautiful than they are now, according to the quoted source.
"The biggest problem at the moment is represented by fast boats. If 18 years ago, when I came to the Delta, you were going by boat from Mila 23 to Matita and you saw at least 100 nests of little grebe, now you don't see any more. Birds simply no longer have where to nest. When every 10 minutes the nests are hit by waves of one meter, one meter and a half, and by extremely noisy people and with a Mamaia resort club behavior, you cannot have birds to nest in the area. Basically, the fauna retreats more and more in the depths of the Delta or leaves the Delta," said Goean.
Another fear of the economic agents practicing slow tourism is the situation in Ukraine.
"When the Russians took Crimea, all the foreign agencies canceled the groups they had with us, because we were a neighboring country with one in war, and the travel insurance no longer covered them. At that time, they moved 100 kilometers south of us, not because the war was not getting near them in Bulgaria, but because Bulgaria did not have a border with a country in war. At that time, about 75 percent of the foreign groups have canceled their reservations at that time," mentioned Iliuta Goean.
According to the website of the Delta Administration, the Reserve is famous for its ornithological fauna, here being registered a total of 365 species, besides the 520 species inventoried in all Western Europe. The area has a universal importance for the nesting of many bird populations such as the common pelican, the Dalmatian pelican and the pygmy cormorant, it is a major resting place, both in spring and autumn, for several million birds, especially ducks, the white stork and numerous species of prey birds. In the winter season, the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve finds large groups of swans and geese, including almost the entire population of red-breasted goose.
