Overnight stays in Romania's tourist accommodation facilities over January - May 2019 were 9.9 pct higher YoY, at 8.415 million, with Romanian tourists accounting for 78.3 pct of the total, and foreigners for the rest of 21.7 pct, the National Institute of Statistics (INS) announced.
Visitors from Europe accounted for the highest share of foreign tourists' overnight stays in accommodation facilities (72.6 pct of the total foreign tourists) and of these, visitors from EU countries represented 83 percent.Arrivals in tourist accommodation establishments in the first five months of the year were up 6.2 pct YoY at 4.307 million.
Of the total number of arrivals in hospitality facilities over Jan. 1 - May 31, 2019, Romanian tourists accounted for 78.6 pct, while foreign tourists accounted for 21.4 pct.
Most foreign visitors came from European countries (74.3 pct of the total) and of these, 84.2 pct were from EU countries, INS said.
The average stay in the reporting period was 1.9 days for Romanian tourists and 2 days for foreign tourists; the net occupancy rate of accommodation places in the said period was 26.5 percent overall, by 2.5 percent higher than in the similar period of 2018.
The highest net occupancy rates were 33.6 percent for hotels, 23 pct for ships, 20.1 pct for hostels, 19.4 pct for tourist villas, 18.6 pct for tourist inns and 17.1 pct for bungalows.
In a breakdown by counties, tourist arrivals in tourist accommodation establishments over January 1 - May 31, 2019 were highest in Bucharest (781,500); Brasov (516,600); Cluj (239,600); and Prahova (216,700), while the number of overnight stays was highest in Bucharest (1.363 million), Brasov (1.020 million), Prahova (464,700) and Cluj (441,700).
Most foreign visitors who stayed in tourist accommodation establishments came from Germany (95,500), Italy ( 83,400), Israel (77,400), France (55,000), the US (54,400), and the UK (50,000).
There were 4.233 ml incoming foreign visitors registered at border checkpoints between Jan. 1 - May 31, 2019, up 6.5 percent compared to the similar period of the year before, most of whom arrived by road transport (72.3 pct) and by air (25.2 pct).
Departures of Romanian visitors abroad in the first five months of the year stood at 8.102 million, up 5.4 percent YoY, with 66.3 percent of the travelers using road transport for the trip, and 33 pct - air transport.
AGERPRES
