Bucharest Beckons, Offering Cheap Romanian Resorts for Russian Tourists

The Romanian National Tourism Authority has reportedly announced plans to launch a promotion campaign aimed to luring Russian tourists into visiting Romania's inexpensive Black Sea resorts.

Until last year, Turkey and Egypt were Russia's most popular foreign vacation destinations, but Ankara's attack on a Russian jet and a terrorist attack in the Sinai Peninsula which left over 200 dead have prompted tourists to seek other options.

Romania has stepped up to the task, and plans to start a promotion campaign aimed at attracting Russians to its inexpensive Black Sea resorts, according to the news website Balkan Insight.

It quoted Romanian National Tourism Authority President Anca Pavel-Nedea as saying that accommodation prices at these resorts won't drain Russian tourists' wallets.

"Seaside for Russians will offer hotels places on the Black Sea at prices starting from only 10 euros per night. The focus will be on anti-ageing treatments and complex aesthetic treatments, services which are very popular among Russian tourists," Anca Pavel-Nedea said.

She added that Romanian authorities hope to attract about 100,000 Russian tourists this year, given that "many of them have lost interest in holidays in Turkey and Egypt following terrorist attacks and the unstable situation there."

Last year, around two million foreign tourists, including 30,000 Russians, visited Romania in 2015, sources said.

In contrast, more than five million people visited Bulgaria and nine million tourists went to Hungary, countries that the Balkan Insight said are "far smaller than Romania and arguably have far fewer attractions."

In late November 2015, Moscow introduced a number of economic measures against Ankara, including a ban on tours to Turkey, in response to the downing of a Russian Su-24 aircraft by a Turkish F-16 fighter in Syria on November 24.

The number of Russian tourists visiting Turkey had reportedly already decreased by 19 percent in the ten months of 2015, compared with the same period of last year.