The first Tourist Information Center in Chisinau, housed by the City Hall, was opened officially on November 9. The Center provides visitors with information about events, accommodation facilities, itineraries and tours, including wine tours. Through the Virtual Reality technology, the visitors will also be able to see particular destinations interactively, before purchasing travel tickets. Tourists will be informed about known and not yet explored tourist destinations, including cultural and architectural monuments, natural reserves, monasteries, wineries and craftsmen’s center s, including from the Transnistrian region, IPN reports.
The Tourist Information Center was set up with financial support from the European Union within the Support to Confidence Building Measures Program implemented by UNDP and from USAID and the Government of Sweden through the Moldova Competiveness Project.
Attending the inauguration, Vitalie Iurcu, secretary of state at the Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure, said the Republic Moldova is a country that deserves to be visited and the tourists’ interest in it increases annually. “In 2016, our country was visited by 3.2 million tourists, an increase of 20% compared with 2015. The first results of this year show that the number of these rose by almost 17% compared with the corresponding period last year,” stated Vitalie Iurcu, noting that the Government will further contribute to building a favorable business climate, including in tourism.
U.S. Ambassador in Chisinau James Pettit said polls show that about 70% of the tourists interviewed when leaving the country noted the lack of information as the most serious challenge during the trip to Moldova. The U.S. Government has supported the tourism sector of Moldova since 2012 and the launch of the Tourist Information Center is designed to complement the tourist ecosystem and to satisfy the biggest need of tourists – the access to information.
The Center will strengthen the basis for developing a regional and national network of tourist information centers. A similar center woks in Tiraspol. Marco Gemmer, Deputy Head of the Operations Section of the EU Delegation to Moldova, said the tourist offer of Moldova is common to both banks of the Nistru. Most of the tourists who come to Chisinau on vacation, visit Tiraspol as well. The Tourist Information Center is a concrete example of how both sides of the Nistru River can find a common economic interest and an advantage for building direct cooperation.
Besides providing postcards, tourist guides and brochures, the Center will also host exhibitions of photos and paintings and wine tasting events.
