Heavy rains hit Romanian coastal resorts

Some 15 percent of the beaches on the Romanian Black Sea shore have been damaged by heavy rains in the last few days. The repairs will be made only during night-time hours and will last until at least the end of the week, the Romanian media reports. In full summer season tens of workers from the Dobrogea-Seaside Water Directorate are working at night to repair the destroyed beaches. Tonnes of sand are brought from the neighbouring lands to refill the beaches in the resorts of Costinesti, Venus and Eforie. The most affected was the beach in Venus resort, damaged at a 70 percent rate. Because of rain and wind storms, in Eforie Sud some 500 metres of sea-walls crumbled. Nicolae Platon, president of the National Association of Travel Agencies (ANAT) of Moldova, told Info-Prim Neo that the bad weather didn’t affect in any way the demand for offers in Romanian resorts among the Moldovan tourists. Nevertheless, Platon says that for more than a week the Romanian Consulate in Moldova refuses to issue personal visas, thus many tourists who had scheduled trips to Romania for August were not able to leave. “Group visas are issued for at least 6 persons and oblige the tourists to leave and return to the country on the same day, at the same hour. When it comes to several families, it’s hard to persuade them to choose the same destination and stick to the same agenda”, ANAT president said. Nicolae Platon affirmed that 38 ANAT member-agencies complained about a significant drop in the offers for Romania. According to ANAT preliminary statistics, from the beginning of the summer season to August 1, some 7.8 thousand Moldovan tourists chose Turkey as their destination, 4.8 thousand – Ukraine, 3.9 thousand – Bulgaria, 3.2 thousand – Romania