The profile of the Romanian tourist

For about a quarter of Romanians, going on holiday is a treat they almost always cannot afford for themselves. However, there are other Romanians who, all throughout the year, can have a holiday combination of at least a four-night stay and a mini-holiday, according to specialist surveys that are published periodically. The main reasons why people go on holiday are the need for them to have some recreation, to cut themselves off from the stress of daily life, to have fun, but also to reward themselves for the work throughout the year.

The summer of 2023 has come to an end. Reason enough for us to outline the profile of the Romanian tourist. Who is he ? What are his favorite destinations? How much money are they willing to spend? We have the perfect opportunity to look into that, since the World Tourism Day is celebrated on September 27!

Our guide through the habits of Romanian tourists is Cristina Popa. For quite a few years now, Cristina has been an entrepreneur in the area. Since 1996, when she graduated from the Tourism Faculty, Cristina has been organizing trips, city-breaks, safaris or exotic getaways. Many of the groups of tourists are accompanied by Cristina herself. Reason enough for us to describe Cristina as someone who has become very familiar with the habits of the Romanian tourist.

"The Romanian tourist's perspective, that has changed a little bit!. He began to travel to further destination more, as the fees there are not very high as compared to what Europe can offer, what with the expenses there, a lot smaller than in Europe. In the past years France and Spain were extremely sought-after, just as they are now, they started to head for Kenya or for Mauritius or for the Maldives very often. Now Zanzibar has become quite trendy for a couple of years now. There are offers where they have the chance to buy affordable flight tickets, the value for money is very, very good for those destinations. "

We also asked Cristina Popa if the Romanians, as tourists, are picky.

"Some people are picky. I had a group in Zanzibar and those people there wanted to have everything at their fingertips straight away, as they were used to that, at home, not being able to take into account they were on another continent where people moved differently. There they say "polé polé", take your time, take your time, and if you wanted to have the waiter fetch your beer at the table, having ordered it, it took them half an hour for that, while getting the food brought at the table, that lasted for about three hours. They move differently. If you, as a tourist, can accept the fact that you are at another destination, in another zone, on another continent, where things are different as compared to Romania or Europe, then you should have no problem. We can make things more difficult for ourselves because we cannot accept those who are different from us and with whom we have not grown accustomed to. "  

In recent years, the rather unpleasant situations for us all, as a society, have grown on us, we had the Covid, while as we speak, we have the war at the border with Ukraine, there also was the energy crisis and rampant inflation, so less money, for some...How has all that influenced Romanians' holiday habits? Cristina Popa once again.

"The clients I have in my portfolio were not necessarily influenced by that. The Covid, that of course slowed us all down a little bit since travel regulations at that time were different. If you had the vaccine or the test, there were not unpleasant situations. Our clients continued to travel... 

...And spend...But how much they spent, here is Cristina Popa once again, telling all that.

"There are fees from 500-600 Euro per person per stay, in Bulgaria and Greece, there are also fees ranging from 900 to about 2,000 Euros per person for other destinations. I've just had a group in the Maldives, they paid around 2,000 Euros per person so they were willing to pay more, I could see they wanted so much to travel to areas they had never been to before, and to me, that is magic because, well, that is what we are left with, eventually, with what we get to see. "

Apart from the holidays we might call classic, our guide, apart from being faithful to Romanians' tourism preferences, organizes another kind of tourism as well. For children and teenagers aged 10 to 14, Cristina Popa offers that sort of tourism where personal development blends into leisure.

"I have begun, for three years now, to offer that kind of tourism too, for children and teenagers, those personal development camps. We go to guesthouses that have been authorized to stage such camps, but which are different, they do not give you that feeling you're on a school camp, as we do not want that. We want the children to discover themselves and realize the abilities they have been endowed with, and do whatever pleases them. So, for instance, this year I staged an intuition workshop so they can see how they can listen to their intuition themselves. We stage creativity, painting, drawing workshops, all sorts of self-confidence workshops, so they can discover themselves. "

Summer has come to an end, children have returned to school, their parents have exhausted their summer holidays. However, for Cristina Popa or for her colleagues we can hardly speak about relaxing. And that, because the Romanians keep going on holiday, irrespective of the season.

"In October I go the Island of Egina with a group, in November I'll be off to Cuba, for February I stage a trip to Sri Lanka for the families with children. So we no longer have that time of the year we all know, when September or October come and we relax! As we speak, we can't complain, we have an uninterrupted inflow of tourists, provided the social and world circumstances allow that."