Radio România Internațional

Tag: guesthouses

  • Tourism in the Winter Holidays

    Tourism in the Winter Holidays

    Romanian tourists have changed
    their preferences in recent years regarding the places they choose to spend the
    winter holidays. More and more Romanians prefer to leave home and spend Christmas away, opting for various dynamic activities. There are those who
    chose to spend Christmas abroad, heading for warm spots such as the Maldives,
    Thailand, Zanzibar, Dubai, the Dominican Republic, Mexico or Egypt. Children’s
    destinations such as Lapland or Disneyland, ranked second in terms of
    preferences. The most sought-after destinations in the country were Bukovina,
    Maramures, Baile Felix spa and the mountain resorts on Prahova Valley. Those
    who wanted something different, longing for the joy of Christmas spent in the
    old days, opted for guesthouses operating in peasant houses, some of them over
    150 years old.

    According to the National Association for Ecological, Rural and
    Cultural Tourism in Romania (ANTREC), these houses observe the traditional wood
    and stone architecture and are kept in mint condition, preserving an archaic
    mood that is very hard to find, Livia Sima from the Maramures branch of ANTREC told
    us. Another category of tourists opted for guesthouses located very close to
    ski slopes in the mountains, even if this year we’ve had little to no snow.
    Nevertheless snow cannons and night lighting facilities are operational. Customs
    and traditions are associated at this time of the year with traditional food
    and the occasional ride on the village alleys, either by horse-drawn carriage
    or ATV. At the opposite pole, those who went to Baile Felix spa or similar
    resorts could enjoy all the thermal water facilities offered. Tourism in
    Romania reported a good evolution this year, not just around holidays, the
    National Statistics Institute reports. The number of arrivals has gone up in
    the first 9 months of the year by 4.4%, while some 20% of tourists were foreigners.
    Over 2 million foreigners visited Romania in the first 9 months of the year,
    spending some 1.15 billion euros, according to the National Statistics
    Institute. Half of them traveled for business, taking part in conferences,
    congresses, classes, trade fairs and exhibitions. Foreign tourists spent 50% of
    their money on accommodation, preferring units that offered included breakfast.
    Some 18% of the money was spent in restaurants and bars, while a little over
    30% represented gifts and souvenirs.


    (Translated by V. Palcu)

  • How Romanians spent winter holidays

    How Romanians spent winter holidays

    Romanians who preferred not to stay at home for the winter holidays have spent close to 36 million euros on New Years holiday packages in Romania and abroad. According to a survey conducted by the Employers Federation in Romanian Tourism, about 147 thousand people have spent the New Years Eve in Romania, a number slightly lower than in 2014. According to the same sources, the end of the year, marked by political, social and economic unrest, urged some tourists to reconsider their planned winter holidays.



    The trend of choosing Romania as a tourist destination will be maintained during the year 2016, due to the international political circumstances and the road safety Romania offers. Even if the regions renowned for preserving Romanian traditions were overcrowded, at national level the number of tourists was reduced by 3.5% as compared to last year, particularly in the mountain regions. Not all the Romanian resorts have seen a drop in the number of tourists as many chose to spent the holidays in spas (4% more than last year). Resorts on the Black Sea coast and in the Danube Delta have also reported an increased number of tourists.



    Rural guesthouses are most sought-after in winter holidays, followed by hotel packages in big cities. The most popular destinations with the Romanians were mountain resorts in the Prahova Valley, Poiana Brasov, Paltinis, Ranca, Straja, Calimanesti, Felix Spa and the traditional rural areas, Bran-Moeciu, Maramures and Bukovina. Tourists have this year paid higher prices than in 2015, by 5% more on average. Even if they benefited from more days off than last year, few Romanians booked holiday packages abroad. The number of those who went abroad stood at 8 thousand, 5% less than in 2015.



    They had to choose from various winter-sports resorts in Austria, France, Italy, Slovenia and Bulgaria, City Break packages in European countries or exotic destinations, such as the Bahamas, Jamaica, Australia, South Africa or Vietnam. The Romanian tourists have shown an increased interest in the Dominican Republic, the Maldives, Mexico and Brazil. According to the aforementioned travel federation, the shifting outlook on money and time management has prompted many Romanians to spare money and vacation at home during the winter holidays, so that they may enjoy more city-break packages and holidays during the year. At the same time the unusually warm weather in December made many Romanians cancel their reservations for the New Years Eve.


    (Translated by D. Bilt)


  • Holidays in the Countryside

    Holidays in the Countryside

    The tourists who want to take a break from the hectic city life benefit from special accommodation fees in countryside guesthouses over September and October this year. Holidays in the Countryside is a programme run by the National Association for Rural, Cultural and Sustainable Tourism. The program is drawing to a close, but its offers are still available for a couple of weeks. So today we will be speaking about how successful the Holidays in the Countryside programme has been, and about accommodation offers in Romanian villages for the winter holidays season.



    The Holidays in the Countryside programme has now reached its 25th edition and is run jointly by the Romanian Association of Travel Employers (ANAT), and the National Association for Rural, Cultural and Sustainable Tourism, known as ANTREC. The ultimate goal of the programme is to promote tourism in the Romanian countryside.



    This years autumn edition was scheduled to take place between September 30 and October 30, with accommodation fees ranging from 40 Euro per person in a 2-star guesthouse, to 65 Euro per person in a 5-star guesthouse. As usual, guesthouses from all over the country have come up with offers. With details on that, here is the president of the National Association for Rural, Cultural and Sustainable Tourism, Marilena Stoian.



    Marilena Stoian: The programme has always been popular, because it gives low-income people the opportunity to spend a holiday in the countryside, in Romanian villages. Another element contributing to its success is the fact that the programme has been implemented for many years now and we already have faithful tourists, guests who come over, again and again. We receive requests for information even before the official opening of the programme. But the holidays in Romanian villages, in rural tourist facilities, are popular throughout the year, even after this special-offer-special-fees programme comes to an end. In November, December and next year you can spend weekends or proper holidays, even if fees are a little higher than during this period. Nonetheless, hospitality is everywhere as usual, the food is as tasty as it used to be, while hosts are just as welcoming, offering a wide range of programmes, be they leisure or cultural.



    There are many foreign tourists, most of them Europeans, but also tourists coming from America, from Asia, Japan in particular, who want to get to know the Romanians at home, to get acquainted with their traditions. And theres no better place to do that than the countryside, says the president of the National Association for Rural, Cultural and Sustainable Tourism, Marilena Stoian.



    Marilena Stoian: “There are foreign tourists who come here for the winter holidays as well. They want to see the local traditions on Saint Nicholas, Christmas, the New Year and the Epiphany Day. They are interested in food, wine tasting, they are also interested in visiting tourist assets, like museums or monasteries. They are delighted with authenticity, and with the fact that people are very natural, that food is natural, not necessarily organic in the strict sense of the word, but the varieties of food available are natural. They are delighted with the flexibility of the program, with the openness of Romanians towards foreigners.



    When should we start booking our winter holidays?



    Marilena Stoian: We should start looking for our destination and make our bookings straight away. Already there are many guesthouses where all rooms have been booked by the tourists who came there in previous years. They stayed in touch with the hosts and have already made reservations. But places are still available in lots of villages and in areas which are well-known as destinations for rural tourism: Bran, Moeciu, Fundata, Mărginimea Sibiului, the Neamt region, or in areas where the tourism industry has just started growing in recent years: northern Oltenia, Gorj, Valcea. These are areas where special programmes are staged for tourists during the winter holidays. Such programmes reflect accurately the way people have a good time here, how they keep their traditions alive, and tourists take part in that, they join the locals in the cooking, or in the kneading of the dough for the pound cakes, or in making the fire in the courtyard oven for the pound cakes and bread. Also, tourists learn or just listen to carols, which in rural communities are still authentic, they have not been altered by modernity. So were waiting for all of you in the Romanian villages. We are always glad to have guests, and the winter holidays, including Saint Nicholas, Christmas, the New Years Eve, Saint Basil, and Epiphany Day make the perfect time for guests to get to know us, to get acquainted with traditions, to relax and get ready for a new year.



    Here is Cornel Poenar, the manager of a three-star guesthouse in Cavnic, located in northern Romanias Maramures:



    Cornel Poenar: “We can arrange three and five-day stays in our region. For the first day, we recommend a brief tour of Maramures. The schedule includes a visit to Birsana Monastery, which is one of the worlds most beautiful wooden monasteries, the Merry Cemetery in Sapinta, which is unique in the world. Then there is the Memorial of the Victims of Communism and the Resistance, including a visit to communist prisons in Sighetul Marmatiei. For the second day, we recommend Viseul de Sus, for a trip on board a narrow-gauge train on the Vaser Valley. The tour takes eight hours to complete, and the route is among the few ones left in Europe. Then you can visit the Village Museum and the History Museum in Baia Mare.



    Speaking now is Albumita Preotescu, the manager of a four-star guesthouse in the village of Vama, in Bukovina, a region which is famous for its traditions and gastronomy.



    Albumita Preotescu: The guesthouse has a specially arranged area where tourists can find maps with all the objectives worth visiting during their stay, all sorts of leaflets, gastronomy magazines, other information. Bukovina is a region that God has blessed, and were waiting for you all, so that you can discover with your own eyes this wonderful land.



    So all you have to do is contact your tour operator and make an inquiry about winter tourism offers in Romanian guesthouses. They are operational, and the booking season has already begun.