The Austrian Development Agency will offer Moldova a grant of 117,000 lei for implementing the project “Human resources, valuable investments in rural tourism in Moldova”. The grant contract was signed with the National Training Center for Tourism Industry Personnel of the Tourism Agency, IPN reports.

The project represents one of the measures taken by the Tourism Agency to stimulate domestic and inbound tourism. Within it, there will be worked out a training course in the management of rural tourism businesses that will be piloted with 30 participants selected by the local public administration of every district.

The 30 administrators of rural accommodation units will be able to take part in a seven-day training course on rural development, scheduled for May 19-24. In the end, the participants will receive certification diplomas based on which they will be able to work for three years in the tourism sector of Moldova.

The total cost of the project is 153,000 lei, the contribution of the National Training Center for Tourism Industry Personnel being 36,000 lei.

Tourism Agency director Nicolae Platon said that this project is very important for developing rural tourism. Currently, there are 20 rural pensions in Moldova. The Tourism Agency initiated public consultations on the Tourism Law that institutes vacation homes with the capacity of at most five rooms and ten accommodation places. The draft is available on the Agency’s website. Proposals can be submitted until April 30.