RETN has launched a new backbone route across Romania linking the Balkans, Moldova and Ukraine, adding a new physical connectivity option in Eastern Europe.

The end-to-end path connects Drobeta, Bucharest, Iași and Chișinău as a continuous backbone route. It provides an alternative to existing regional IP transit corridors and extends RETN’s optical network in Central and Eastern Europe.

The new link ties Romania and Moldova into RETN’s existing Balkans corridor, which connects Budapest, Timișoara and Sofia. This creates a new geographical path across the region and adds route diversity to its international backbone.

It also opens an alternative routing option to Ukraine through Moldova and to the Balkans through Bulgaria. The network is aimed at telecom operators, internet service providers, enterprises and international customers moving traffic across Eastern and South-Eastern Europe.

Regional demand

The launch comes as Romania’s broadband market continues to expand. Data from Romania’s National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications shows the country had 6.9 million fixed broadband connections by mid-2025.

Of those connections, 37% were capable of gigabit speeds, according to the regulator. Average fixed broadband traffic per person has also been rising, pointing to stronger demand for bandwidth.

Internet use in Romania reached about 94% of the population by late 2025, according to market figures cited by RETN. Bucharest and Iași have become increasingly important centres for business, education and technology, adding pressure on communications infrastructure.

Physical route diversity is becoming a growing concern for carriers and network operators in the region, particularly as they seek alternatives to established corridors. New routes can help manage outages, distribute traffic loads and build more resilience into cross-border networks.

The project forms part of a broader push to strengthen RETN’s footprint in Central and Eastern Europe. The company operates a Eurasian network spanning Western Europe, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, with onward links to China and Southeast Asia.

That broader network gives RETN a role in carrying international traffic between European and Asian markets. Adding a route through Romania and Moldova increases the number of path options available within that system.

Company view

RETN positioned the expansion as a response to changing traffic patterns and rising infrastructure demand in Romania and neighbouring markets.

“This project is an important step in strengthening connectivity resilience in Romania,” said Olena Lutsenko, Business Development Director at RETN.

“Bucharest and Iași are rapidly developing hubs for business, education and technology, and demand for resilient, high-capacity infrastructure is rising fast. By delivering a direct route from Timișoara to Bucharest and onward to Chișinău, we are enabling faster, more scalable access to the region from the Balkans, Ukraine and Central and Eastern Europe in general – for operators, ISPs, enterprises and international customers,” Lutsenko said.

The route gives RETN another way to connect traffic flows between the Balkans and markets further east. In practice, operators seeking alternatives to existing paths can route traffic through Romania and Moldova instead of relying solely on more established corridors.

Romania has emerged as an important network market in the region because of strong fibre adoption and rising internet use. Moldova and Ukraine also sit on strategically important transit paths for regional and international traffic, making cross-border network design more significant for carriers serving the area.

The expansion underlines the continued build-out of communications infrastructure across Eastern and South-Eastern Europe as operators add redundancy and support growing data volumes. It also reflects the importance of Bucharest, Iași and Chișinău on the wider map of regional connectivity.

Experience Oxfordshire’s boss said Puy du Fou will “drive job creation, stimulate economic growth” and increase visitor spend” to Cherwell and the county.

Some 25 million visitors come to Oxfordshire annually, generating roughly £2.4bn in economic impact and supporting 40,000 jobs.

In the Cherwell district, where Puy du Fou is planned for close to Bicester, tourism spending is fast approaching £500 million.

Puy du Fou in France (Image: Puy du Fou)

“This sector is therefore crucial to ongoing economic development, prosperity and employment,” said Experience Oxfordshire chief executive Hayley Beer-Gamage.

“Puy du Fou will further strengthen this position across both the district and the wider county.”

Ms Beer-Gamage said Puy du Fou should also fill in a gap in the market for Oxfordshire, which so far it has been lacking on.

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The proposed development includes conference facilities for up to 500 delegates which would be a “significant opportunity” for Oxfordshire.

She said capacity for such a thing is “currently lacking” within the county and so having one would enable Oxfordshire to “attract more national and international business events, generating additional spend for accommodation and hospitality providers, and wider visitor economy businesses”.

Hayley Beer-Gammage of Experience Oxfordshire

Experience Oxfordshire’s boss added: “Oxfordshire is already home to globally recognised attractions such as Blenheim Palace, the University of Oxford, and Bicester Village.

“The addition of Puy du Fou would further strengthen the county’s position on the international tourism map, offering a compelling and diverse range of experiences.

“Furthermore, Puy du Fou’s commitment to job creation and local infrastructure investment reinforces the long-term value of this proposal.

“With an estimated £600 million investment and the creation of up to 8,000 jobs, this development represents a unique and significant opportunity.

“Experience Oxfordshire fully supports this application and strongly encourages the Council to approve it as a high-quality and transformative asset for the Cherwell area.”

It comes as VisitBritain recently said Puy du Fou’s operator “offers a truly distinctive visitor experience through its historic theme park concept” and said it “can see the potential for this project to generate significant interest and excitement among domestic and international visitors alike.”

The park would be open between April and October and would have four period villages and 13 live shows, eventually attracting an estimated 1.47 million visitors a year.

There will also be three hotels, each themed to different periods in British history, and a ‘state-of-the-art’ conference centre, which will be open on demand all year round.

The decision now lies with Cherwell council, and if approved, the new park will open in phases beginning in 2029.

Mastercard says British consumers are shifting leisure spending towards in-person experiences and away from digital activity. Its latest research found that many plan to rely less on screens and algorithms when deciding how to spend their free time.

The findings are based on a survey of 2,000 UK respondents, alongside wider European research covering 27,000 people across 28 countries. Two-thirds of UK consumers said they are prioritising in-person experiences this year to balance the time they spend online, while 60% prefer human recommendations over algorithmic suggestions when planning days out.

A separate spending measure from the Mastercard Economics Institute showed that experiences excluding travel accounted for 23.3% of UK consumer spending last year, up from 22.3% in 2024. That put experiences ahead of discretionary retail spending, which stood at 22.7%.

The data points to a broader shift in how consumers value leisure. Nine in 10 respondents said they were willing to spend less on goods if it meant taking part in more experiences, and 71% said lived experiences are now more important than ever.

Technology is among the categories people are prepared to cut back on. About 32% said they would spend less on technology and gadgets, while 26% would reduce spending on streaming services to free up money for leisure activities.

Human-led choices

The survey suggests many consumers want a break from digital mediation as artificial intelligence becomes more common in daily life. Some 69% of Britons said they plan to put human recommendations first and use algorithms less when making leisure plans, while 39% said they would not want to admit they had used AI to organise an event or experience.

There was also strong interest in activities designed to reduce digital engagement. More than half of respondents, 52%, said they expected to take part in more analogue experiences that encourage them to switch off, while 62% planned to attend digital detox or analogue escapism events where smartphones and connected devices are discouraged or banned.

Community also emerged as a strong theme. The research found that 62% were interested in what Mastercard described as communal coping events, ranging from repair cafes to group sessions built around emotional release. Another 61% said they preferred experiences that directly support local communities or businesses.

Travel and tourism ranked as the most popular summer experience category among UK respondents, cited by 78%. Food-related activities followed at 69%, then live events at 66%. Film-related experiences, heritage attractions, theatre, cultural events, wellness activities, family outings and outdoor experiences also ranked highly.

Preferences varied by age group. People aged over 65 were the most likely to say experiences create the best life memories, at 84%. Gen Z respondents were the most likely to seek front-row access to favourite events, while millennials showed the strongest interest in communal activities. Overall, consumers aged 35 to 44 showed the greatest appetite to try something new this year.

Nostalgia trend

The report also identified nostalgia as a notable force in the experience market. Half of UK respondents said they were seeking more nostalgia-based experiences, and 71% expected to take part in an activity that revives past cultural moments.

Mastercard and research partner Trend Hunter grouped the developments into six themes: analogue escapism, common ground, communal coping, conscious connection, halcyon days and indie everything. Examples ranged from vinyl listening bars and still-photography events to sleeper train journeys, themed supper clubs, second-hand fashion and niche community gatherings.

For smaller businesses, the shift could create a commercial opening. More than half of respondents said they would actively look to book activities through small and medium-sized businesses, while 54% associated those firms with higher-quality experiences. Another 57% said they would use local businesses more often if they offered experiences as gifts.

Consumers also appear willing to spend more in those settings. Some 68% said they spend more freely when out enjoying an experience, and 61% said they were happy to pay more for activities that benefit their local area or businesses.

Natalia Lechmanova, chief economist for Europe at the Mastercard Economics Institute, said: “We’re witnessing a significant shift across Europe as consumers reshape their priorities and the balance of their leisure time. Our findings point to something deeper than changing habits. As the pull of the digital world intensifies, they reflect a growing appetite for quality-over-quantity experiences, anchored in human connection.

“Whether it’s live events, cultural pursuits or activities discovered through a personal recommendation, people are leaning into moments that bring them together and leave a lasting impression.”

Trend Hunter said the shift should not be seen as a wholesale rejection of technology, but as an effort to draw firmer boundaries around leisure time.

Courtney Scharf, futurist at Trend Hunter, said: “The UK is embracing the human touch when it comes to experiences this summer, but this isn’t a rejection of technology. Consumers are adopting automation for the efficiency it brings to work and everyday life, while increasingly balancing this out by spending their leisure time in ways that feel distinctly human. The more pervasive AI becomes and the more of our lives we spend online, the more valuable those personal experiences are.

“AI can deliver great insights in a split second, but it cannot recreate the chemistry of people sharing a space, or the unpredictability of a live moment. People are filling their social time more intentionally – choosing live music over streaming, communal activities over solo scrolling, and deeper connections over quick catch-ups. 2026 will be remembered as the year consumers rediscovered what only the real world can offer.”