Arrivals of tourists at Romania's border, up almost 25pct in first nine months of 2021

The number of arrivals of tourists at Romania's borders in the first nine months of 2021 was 5,131,300, up 24.9% from the same period in 2020, according to data with the National Institute of Statistics (INS).Most foreign visitors came from European countries (95.7%), with the largest share belonging to visitors from Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine. In fact, the first six places, according to the share in the total number of arrivals, belong to countries located in Europe: Bulgaria (18.6%), Moldova (18%), Ukraine (17.8%), Hungary (9%) , Turkey (7.3%), and Germany (3.5%).In the same period of time, 2,335,400 arrivals at the border were recorded from other European Union countries (45.5% of the total arrivals), up 10.8% over the first three quarters of 2020.As against January 1- September 30, 2020, the largest increases in the number of arrivals at Romania's borders were from America (+ 88.3%), Europe (+ 24.6%), Africa (+ 19.2%), and Asia (+ 14.1%). There was a significant decrease in the arrivals of international visitors from Australia, Oceania and other territories (-37.4%).On the other hand, the number of departures of Romanian visitors abroad in the first nine months of 2021 was 8,887,200, up 12.9% over the same period in 2020.Most of the international arrivals were through the border checkpoints at Giurgiu (638,800 arrivals), Otopeni (520,400 arrivals), Calafat (516,200 arrivals), Albita (313,000 arrivals) and Nadlac II (297,100 arrivals).Most of the departures were via Otopeni (1,727,0000 departures), Nadlac II (873,400 departures), Bors (831,800 departures), Petea (569,900 departures) and Albita (523,400 departures).Road transport was the most used mode of transport used by international visitors to travel to Romania and was still preferred by Romanians going abroad.Regarding the arrivals of foreign visitors in Romania, important increases were reported in the use of naval types of transport (+ 141%), road types (+ 23.2%), and air types (+21.7%).The highest increases y-o-y in terms of departures of Romanian visitors abroad were reported in the use of naval types (+ 36%), air types (+ 19.1%), as well as road types(+ 10.3%).A significant decrease was recorded in the use of train by Romanian visitors travelling abroad (-11.3%).