It is not new that when you consider a marketing expense you look for the returns as quantified in sales increase. Having this in mind and given the Romanian size and huge touristic potential I was a bit surprised to notice that the Romanian governement allocated only $12 million for it.

It should be noted that tourism is one area where the state budget can hugely benefit in the near future given the bio and geographical diversity and culture one can find nowadays in Romania. If we're to judge the declarations the officials already have realized that. If we're to look at their strategy, I'd say they're far away from having at least an idea about what the tourism investements and consequent returns mean. A simple evidence of that is that the state organization dedicated to dealing with this issue is incorporated into the Minister or Transportation and Construction.

The promotion figure may appear high by Romanian standards, but from the marketing point of view is not big at all. Simply compare it with government promotion budgets in Turkey of $75 mil and in Greece of $150 mil. Many foreign tour operators are just unaware of the Romanian market.

BUT, that means the business opportunities are huge. If interested, you may read a paper about Romanian tourism background and potential (PDF) written in 2003 for CHF - a U.S.-based private, non-profit development corporation. Their conclusion? Romania has several tourist products that are competitive and have the potential for increased exports: namely cultural tourism, spa/health tourism, nature/adventure tourism (including winter sport tourism), spa/health tourism and city tourism. Nevertheless, without a concerted effort in government policy towards the support of tourism including a substantial increase in funding for tourism promotion, this sector is not likely to experience huge amounts of growth.