She said the creation of the Ministry of Tourism meets the will and expectations of those involved in tourism, adding she wants to make Romania a sought destination both for local and foreign tourists. She also said that in the past, the number of foreign tourists in Romania accounted for a third of the total number of tourists, adding she plans to reach that target again.
Udrea said the current situation in the Romanian tourism sector was caused by the state’s lack of involvement in this area and politicians were only interested in tourism as long as there were privatizations in the sector.
"We have an obsolete touristic infrastructure, private investments were made over long periods of time, with little resources and without a tourism strategy,” Udrea said.
She added tourism could contribute significant funds to the state budget and appealed to Romanians to try and spend part of their vacations in the country this year, to help local operators overcome the financial crisis.