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Tourism : PwC Report: tourism has a huge potential but the infrastructure keeps it back
The income of the touristic industry of Romania reduced by 16% over the last four years, down to 1.5 billion euro in 2011, mainly due to the drop in the number of foreign tourists and their expenditure, the local market being one of the most affected by the crisis in the region, according to PwC Romania. The expenditure of foreign tourists dropped from over 750 million euro in 2008 to less than 600 million euro. Over the last four years, the average annual rate of increase of the touristic industry was negative, -5.7%, the consultancy company said.
"Recession had an impact on the touristic industry of the countries in Central and Eastern-Europe - Poland, Slovakia, Romania being the most affected. The recession reduced the income available of the consumers, who were forced to reduce their expenditure for holidays. By far, the most affected segment of these changes was that of holidays abroad, the Romanian tourists reducing their expenditure by 30% from 460 million euro in 2008 to 310 million euro in 2011"Andrei Cretu, manager in PwC Romania and one of the authors of the study said in a press release.
The study shows that the touristic industry of Romania contributed by1.4% to GDP, but if we add the indirect and induced contributions,tourism brings almost 6 billion euro to the GDP of Romania. The Romanian touristic sector has a reduced contribution to the GDP by comparison to other countries in the region, as Bulgaria has 3.6% of the GDP and Hungary 4% and the Czech Republic 2.8%.
"Although the touristic sector of Romania has a real potential for growth, the infrastructure for transport and the hotel one is inadequate and stops its development. At the same time, the sector feels the lack of a sufficient number of qualified personnel in the domain ( cooks, waiters, roommaids) mainly as a result of the fact that many of those with such qualifications preferred to work abroad, while the schools and highschools do not offer enough graduates in the domain". added the PwC representative, who showed that the intensification of the competition in the domain will lead to the improvement of the quality of touristic services.
The report shows that in Romania there is one of the lowest rate of hotel coverage in Europe, 26% while the Bucharest hotels have a coverage degree more than double (62%). Even so, the income per room (Revpar) dropped even in Bucharest over the last four years. Besides the recession, the increase of hotel offer in Bucharest is responsible for the deterioration of the indicator, according to the consultancy company.
"The tourism is an economic sector which is very competitive, and Romania has to set things right in order to draw a number of foreign tourists. This is not easy, taking into consideration the fact that the countries in the region spend large sums of money to develop tourism. Romania could use a different marketing strategy, by promoting itself as a country which is not affected by the secondary effects of mass tourism, thus being a destination of adventure for the tourists interested not to follow the beaten track" Cretu said.
PwC ensures auditing services, fiscal consultancy for businesses, the network being present in 158 countries.