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The contribution of the tourism industry to Romania's GDP has almost doubled in the last two and a half years, since the establishment of the Ministry of Tourism, the Ministry's Secretary of State Cristina Tarteata told AGERPRES on the occasion of her participation in the conference "The Danube Strategy - Instrument for Economic Development", an event organized in Tulcea by the Ministry under the banner of Romania's Presidency of the EU Strategy of the Danube Region and of its term at the EU Presidency. Attending the event are representatives of Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece and Serbia.
"According to the National Institute of Statistics, since the creation of the Ministry of Tourism two and a half years ago, the share of tourism in the GDP has increased from 1.5 pct to 2.7 pct. This means it almost doubled. This is a very small figure compared to the countries that were today in the panel, Croatia has 20 percent - but it relies only on tourism, or Greece. Our target is to grow to somewhere at 6-7 percent, and Romania can accomplish that," said the Ministry of Tourism official.
In order to achieve this goal, the Ministry of Tourism has adopted a series of measures, including the approval on April 30 of the Ecotourism Strategy, which supports sustainable tourism in protected areas, the cited source said.
Addressing the event, Executive Director of the World Tourism Organisation Manuel Butler commended the results of the Romanian Ministry of Tourism and the efforts of this institution to build a sustainable tourism.
The event includes several debates, such as "Transnational regional cooperation prospects for the development of riverside tourism" and "Sustainable riverside tourism, perspectives. Development versus conservation".
The debates begun in Tulcea will continue the following days in Sfantu Gheorghe, in the Danube Delta.
