Despite the country’s promise as a holiday destination, it still fails to compete with its neighbours.

Every year, at the start of the tourist season, officials announce another major push to attract foreign visitors to Romania’s beaches, mountains, medieval towns and virgin forests.

Some of the figures would suggest the drive is working: last year 6.6 million people visited Romania, an 18 per cent increase on 2003, according to figures from the World Trade Organisation.

But the reality is a lot different, with Romanians preferring to go abroad if they can afford it, and foreign tourists deterred by crumbling infrastructure and poor service.

Socialist Romania developed a tourist industry in the Sixties and Seventies, and was able to encourage Westerners to come and enjoy its Black Sea beaches, as well as receiving Communist-bloc tourists who had fewer travel options.

But almost 16 years after Communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu was toppled, the country is still struggling to shake off its image of being grey, dull and poverty-stricken.

Data for this year’s summer season are not yet available, but reports from hoteliers and tourism officials suggest the results will be no better than last year’s disappointing figures.

According to the Institute of Statistics in Constanta, just 2,000 foreign tourists checked into hotels in Mamaia, the main resort on the Black Sea, between January and September 2004.