Some 10,000 Romanians have left for the Bulgarian seaside resorts for their May Day days off while half of the Romanian hotels remain close for the period - a sign that the tourism sector in Romania has yet to recover after years of trouble, AFP reports.

The agency recalls the exodus of Romanian tourists to the neighboring country started in 2005 and predicts a peak in 2007 as border procedures were simplified following the EU accession of the two countries this year.

The report quotes a Romanian tourists who says at 100 euro for a three-day holiday in a 4-star Albena hotel is a lot much cheaper than what Romania has to offer.

And it quotes the head of a Romanian tourism agency official who says that Romanian hotel owners would not open as early as May 1 for fear of losing money.

Official Romanian predictions quoted by the AFP show some 300,000 Romanians are expected to spend their holidays in Bulgaria this year. Some 1.2 million tourists are expected on the Romanian seaside, 100,000 of which will be foreigners. The percentage is reversed in Bulgaria, where 90% of tourists this year are expected to come from abroad.