Brasov County Tourism Industry Produced Only 564.21 Mio RON In 2008

• Chamber of Commerce says tax evasion affects official figures

Tourism-oriented companies registered in Brasov County reported an aggregate turnover of 564.21 million RON in 2008, up by 15% from 2007. Statistics made last year indicated that Brasov County had 1,732 tourism companies employing 7,868 persons, up by 1,273 from the previous year.

According to a study by the Brasov County Chamber of Commerce and Industry, an employee of the Brasov County tourism industry had a productivity of 71,710 RON in 2008, up by more than 10% from the 62,000 RON calculated for the previous year. Adriana Ispas, Director of the Brasov County Chamber of Commerce and Industry, believes that the figures are affected by "half-legal, not to say illegal, tourism, because many boarding houses have been opened in Brasov and we believe that not all the tourists are declared."

The profitability rate of tourism companies in Brasov decreased to 6.8% in 2008 from 10% in 2007.

• Brasov County services market reaches 4.41 bln RON

The 10,312 companies registered in Brasov County as service providers (including tourism-related services) closed last year with an aggregate turnover of 4.41 billion RON, equal to 13% of the overall turnover of businesses registered in the county, up by 11% from 2007.

Twenty-five percent of the overall turnover of the county came from freight transportation and warehousing, whereas 23.48% was generated by real estate transactions. In fact, employees in the real estate business were the most productive in the services industry, with 669,199 RON in 2008, two times as much as in the previous year. Concurrently, the productivity of finance and insurance employees dropped 43% to 258,943 RON.

The real estate industry also was the most profitable industry in the county, with an impressive 78.1% profitability rate, up from 48% in 2007. The overall profitability rate of the local services industry was 28.9%, up from 18.4% in the previous year.