TULCEA: Tourism in the Delta, down significantly compared to last year

Tourism in the Danube Delta this year registered a decrease of at least 15% compared to last year, according to the Danube Delta Tourist Destination Management Association (AMDTDD), but some economic operators claim that they have registered an increase in the number of visitors.

AMDTDD communication adviser, Corina Davidov, told the press on Saturday, at the end of the seminar ‘Delta tourism between Covid and war. The tourist season is over. Challenges and perspectives’, that this year the number of visitors decreased by up to 20% compared to last year.

“All in all, we can talk about a 15-20% decrease in the number of tourists this year. Now, we are witnessing a very nice autumn which makes us believe that the operators will recover the losses from the spring. The hoteliers tell us that they have reservations until December, October being already full. Thus, overall, the year will be a good one’, said the AMDTDD representative.

During the symposium, held in a resort in Jurilovca, Tulcea county, the economic agents that carry out tourism activities presented their problems, among them the refusal of tourists from abroad to pay the advance payments for the reservations they make, as well as the damages caused to the environment by boats traveling at speed on the canals and lakes of the Delta.

‘The problem is not the engines, but the boatmen. (…) Tourism licenses, transport licenses in the Delta, work licenses in the Delta must be withdrawn, when the boatmen are making slaughters as everyone has seen’, said one of the participants in the event, Mihai Baciu.

Many economic agents declared during the event that the number of tourists this year decreased, but the situation is not a general one.

‘In 15 years, we have managed to build customer loyalty. (…) We learned to do leisure tourism. We were very used to receiving fishermen, but we focused on leisure tourism, and people felt very good and came back more and more. We can talk about a 20% increase in the number of tourists that we targeted in January. We are aware that every year will come with certain problems, we are used to encountering difficulties and we are prepared to do our job’, Silvia Savu, the representative of a complex in Delta, declared for AGERPRES.

And in the terrace area of ​​Tulcea county there are accommodation units that, despite the situation generated by the war in Ukraine, managed to keep their customers.

“With us, the increase in the number of tourists was 10%, but from a financial point of view, not much happened and that is mainly due to the fact that we maintained our prices. We hope that through green energy we can reduce expenses and resist. We have no other solution. (…) Given that the price of the raw material, fish, has increased by at least 25%, perhaps this should also be the percentage increase in prices applied to offers. Our electricity is six times higher (more expensive, no) than two years ago, and gas has registered a 40% increase compared to last year’, stated the manager of a guesthouse in Lunca, Mihaela Feodorof.

During the seminar, AMDTDD pleaded for the establishment of a management organization of the tourist destination that would bring together the voices of all economic operators from Tulcea in the field, alongside those of the town halls, so that, together with the similar organization from Constanţa county, it would represent the interests of tourism in Dobrogea .

AMDTDD currently has around 30 members, private and public entities.

Source – Agerpres / online editor – Daniel Șăndăreanu