Do you know the Calypso study? The project and they results? Here you will find the presentations did for students of Celsa-Sorbonne – M2 CTC.

1. Calypso study on social tourism
ROMANIA
Solen Lallement M2 CTC 28/02/12

2.  Romania at a glance
 Tourism sector in Romania
 Social tourism in Romania
 Assessment of social programs
 European perspectives

3. Romania at a glance
 Localization:
 Surface area of
238,400 km²
 Population:
21,5 million people
 Median age:
40 years old
 Negative population growth

4. Romania at a glance
 GDP: 131,5 billion euros
 Unemployment rate: 7%
 Membership of Europe since the 1st january
2007
 Adoption of the European currency planned
for the 1st January 2015
 74% of the Romania’s foreign trade was with
the European Union

5. Bucarest

6. Monuments

7. Black sea coast and nature

8. Tourism sector : report
 Since the 90s econimic, social an political context
hasn’t contributed to the development of Romanian
tourism
 Chaotic privatisation process : no attractive for foreign investors
 No real investment has been made
 Difficulties to get a visa for Romanians to go abroad
 Many citizens went to work in European countries
( Spain – Italy):
 A new kind of tourism emerged: work migrations and
diaspora
 Main tourist destinations for Romanians:
Hungary, Austria, Greece, Bulgaria ( geographic promiximity)

9. Tourism sector : report
 In 2009, the Romanian tourism industry faced a decrease of 16,40%
( foreign and Romanians tourists combined)
 Why ?
 High prices
 Low quality services
 Lack of all inclusive offers
 Low income of the most important part of the population
 Non existent entertainment opportunities
 Strategies of goverment to improve the competiveness of Romanian tourism
before Calyspo
 Developpement of Spa tourism, eco tourism, mountain tourism, cultural
tourism and social tourism
 New offers of tourism depend on the target group
 Early booking offer in 2010 ( 1st February – 31 March)
 Various discount for young people
 Massive investments expected to facilitate the accessibility of
disabled adults
 Social programs for every kind of people

10. Tourism sector : report
 National strategy for sustainable tourism
 Investors can benefit from European funds
 Development of two labels:
 European environmental label (by the Ministry of
Environment)
 Ecotourism certification system ( Association of
Ecotourism)
 Examples of ecotourism
 Guide for Eco
 Blue Flag

11. Social tourism
 Big Romanian interest for social tourism issues in
collaboration with other european countries
 Social tourism programs are particulary focused
on the kind of population who lacks financial
ressources
Persons aged 65 • retired people = retired people
Division of target groups and above living with social insurance and
Retired people monthly average income= 150 €
17% + retired peasants
30%
Young people 20- • Families receive social support
30 from national social insurance
4%
31% Famililies in social funds
18%
difficulties
•Disabled adults receive a
Disabled adults
monthly pension of 60 €

12. Social tourism
 The different social tourism programs
launched by the government :
 Thefree spa treatment vouchers for retired
people and disabled adults
 The « youth camp»
 TheRomanian holiday tourism voucher
mechanism
 The national off-season tourism program

13. Spa social tourism program
 For who ?
 Retired people and disabled adults
 Program description
 Distribution of free vouchers and subsidized vouchers
 Vouchers can be used in spa locations managed by the national pension
and in private spa location ( national tender every year)
 18 days with breakfast, lunch and dinner + 2 spa treatments per day
 Off season ( 1 sept – 30 may) is more subsidized
 Program supported by the the Ministry of
Labour, Family and Social Affairs
 The national pension and other social insurance rights
 The national authority for Disabled people ( ANPH)

14. Spa social tourism programs
 Limits of this program
 Beneficiairieshave discreased from 2003 until 2006
( vouchers quickly running out)
 Reasons of Non participation :
 Low income ( Extreme poverty means survival)
 No much free time
 Look after grandchildren and take care of housework
 No choice of spa resort destination
 Equipments are not adapted to disabled adults
 Lack of trained staff, information, transport subsidies
 Health problems

15. The youth camps
 For who ?
 Young people and students (18 – 30 years)
 Program description
 One week
 Holiday destination depends on the season: ski resort, black
sea coast
 Festival and cultural events tourism in priority
 Bulgaria and Greece : low cost of all-inclusive offer 200- 250
euros for seven days
 25 euro per day and 6 -18 euro per day in national youth
camps
 Program organized by the Ministry of
Education, Youth, Sport and Research

16. The youth camps
 Limits of this program
Reasons of Non participation
 Financialdifficulties, offers still are quite
expensive for students
 Summer jobs or part-time jobs
 Not adapt to the University calendar
 High unemployement rate for the 15-25
year group ( 21%)

17. The romanian holiday tourism voucher mechanism
 For who ?
 Everybody, if the company (private firms) or public
institutions participate
 Program description started in February 2009
 Distribution of free vouchers by the company (average 400
€) to the employees ( 6300 people = 2,5 million Euro in
2009)
 Fiscally deductible
 For promoting internal tourism and fighting against the black
or infomal tourism economy
 Program supported by:
 The Ministry of Regional Development and Tourism and
Committee for Tourism Development
 The Travel agencies National Association ( ANAT)

18. The Romanian holiday tourism voucher mechanism
 Limits of this program
 Reasons of Non participation
 No specific support exists for families
 Chronic illness
 Not successful among private firms ( must have made
profit during the preceeding fiscal year)
 More followed by public administration, who bought
vouchers for civil servants
 Financial crisis in 2010
 The holiday voucher system has not been well accepted
by the travel agencies ( limitation of the commission)
 Not avalaible to buy a trip outside of Romania

19. The national off-season tourism programs
 For who ?
 Not for specific target group
 But priority for people going on holiday without direct grants from the
state
 Program description
 Discounted off-season offers
 Never been promoted abroad
 « the spa decade and a week of recovery in spa », « sea side for all »,
« one week at the mountain or at the seaside », « one week in the
countryside »
 Different programms have been organised by:
 The Federation of Romanian tourism Employers (FPTR)
 The national Association for Rural, Ecological and Cultural Tourims
( ANTREC)
 The spa tourism employers Association
 SIND Romanian inheritated from communist trade Union system
 Calypso program

20. The national off-season tourism program
 Limits of this program
 Reasons of Non participation
 Families have no specific support
 Prefer to go on holiday during the school holidays

21. Result of social tourism measures
 The government has limited financial funds to
sustain social program
 Private operators can’t offer low prices
 Low profitable rate generated by these
programs
 can’t allow investments to renovate facilities

22. The future of social tourism in Romania
 The government wants to continue these programs
 The goal is to attract foreign tourists to stimulate the
development of specific facilities
 Romania needs help from Europe even if there is a
difference between average income of the Romanians
compared to most European countries ( Western
European countries) France budget = 9 times that of
Romania
 Public sector and NGOs want to study new social
tourism products
 The off-season programs can be adapted to the
Calypso programs : a web portal is created.

23. Thank you for your attention
QUESTIONS ?