New Law on Tourism opens access to investments in tourist infrastructure. Analysis by Info-Prim Neo

The new Law on Tourism aims at developing first of all the receptive tourism (attraction of tourists to Moldova), by offering the possibility to invest in the tourist infrastructure and to develop this field. In order to develop the receptive tourism, we should develop the tourist zones and infrastructure, which must be capable of offering tourist routes with properly fitted tourist facilities, chairman of the National Association of Travel Agencies Nicolae Platon told Info-Prim Neo. The law was approved by the Parliament in November 2006 and came into force in February 2007, after it was published in “The Official Monitor of Moldova”. The document establishes for the first time the activity of the national tourist zones for the development of tourism at national level. At present, the rural sector is poorly developed because of the insufficient public resources for the development of infrastructure, and local and foreign investors were disinclined to invest in tourism due to the simple fact that one can not invest in something belonging to someone else, Platon says. According to him, previously attempts were made to turn the zones to good account through the local public administration, but they were not able to maintain them due to the lack of financial means, which led to the partial or total destruction of the zones. According to Platon, due to the stipulations of the new legislative framework, it is possible to turn to good account the tourist zones through local residents. They can be both individuals and legal persons. They will be given the right to use a certain tourist zone for a period of 50 years. Also, the residents will benefit from a tax exemption of 10 years, excepting social insurance contributions. The state will take upon the commitment to develop the road infrastructure, benefiting from the fact that workplaces will be created at the first stage. A resident of a tourist zone will be able to build for example a hotel, store, parking lots etc. “To motivate foreigners to visit our country, we should create proper conditions on tourist routes. Even though there are several visited places, they are not enough to encourage the inflow of tourists. The “wine routes”, monasteries and other several routes are not enough to develop the receptive tourism”, the cited source mentioned. So far, the tourist zones from Moldova were no yet delimited. At present, a National Agency for the Administration of Tourist Zones will be created within the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The national zone will be approved after a feasibility study will be conducted. It has to prove the motivation for the development of a certain zone. The study will establish the tourist units, the condition of the access ways. Also, all the buildings will be approved by the Ministry, with the approval of the specialists in order to protect the specific architecture of the zone. [Serious competition for Orheiul Vechi] At the moment, specialists estimate that about 22 tourist zones will be possible to be developed in Moldova, but only 12-14 zones will be turned to good account at the first stage. The investment contest for the attraction of residents will be announced after the creation and delimitation of the tourist zones. Experts say that for the Orheiul Vechi zone, which is quite attractive, the competition will be intense. Nicolae Platon says that several companies are already interested in investing in the zones of Ghidighici, Vadul lui Voda etc. At the first stage, the most attractive zones will be those which are already profitable: Saharna, Tapova, monasteries Capriana and Hancu. In the future, tourist agencies will not be able to direct the inflow of tourists as they wish, in light of the fact that they will present the routes and the tourist will choose the desired route. The situation is due to the stipulations of the law. The travel agencies will have to administrate a national tourist route, meaning they will have to publish brochures, guidebooks, information, advertisements in order to present them to the tourists. Referring to the future activity of the travel agencies, Nicolae Platon says that the law stipulates the delimitation of travel companies into travel agencies and tour-operators. So far, all the companies working in this field had the right to create tourist packages (including accommodation services, transport, food, entertainment). From now on, only the experienced companies and with technical capacities necessary for the creation of the packages will be able to perform these activities. The cited source says that previously, new travel companies were often trying to integrate the travel package offering low-quality services because they did not have experience and serious partners. [Travel agencies or tour-operators?] Travel agencies, even the new ones, will be able to sell the packages made by the tour-operators. Acquiring experience and having a certain number of employees, they will have subsequently the possibility to become tour-operators. The exact delimitation of travel agencies and tour-operators will be made after the Ministry of Culture and Tourism will work out a regulation. The regulation might enter into force in April. Nicolae Platon says that the tour-operators should not exceed one third of the total travel companies working on the market, fact which is also proved by the present statistics, showing that out of those about 200 companies, almost 30% are already working as tour-operators. Such companies are Holyday Service, Solei Turism, Canonic Tur, Tocotur, Robinson, Moldova-Tur, Trapeza-Tur etc. According to the cited source, the price of the travel packages sold by the agencies will not exceed the one proposed by the tour-operators. This situation is possible due to the fact that the contracts concluded between tour-operators and travel agencies will stipulate a commission offered by tour-operators. Also, tour-operators will be interested in having several outlets in the city. The new Law on Tourism is not obliging anymore Travel Agencies to pay MDL 2-10 thousand annually in the Fund for the Development of Tourism. In the future, a travel company will plan by itself how to use the money: to print booklets, advertisement or methodological information. [The client is always right. The tourist – especially] The license of the travel company will be cancelled in case it will not refund the damage caused to the tourist, if a customer complains about low-quality services, which has to be proved in court. Also, the license will be cancelled in case the company will not conclude a contract with the customer and will not issue a tourism voucher (document which certifies that the tourist services had been paid). Supplementary, on the basis of the Law on licensing, the companies will remain without licenses if they change the office without announcing the specialised bodies. This legal stipulation aims at excluding the situations occurred in late 90s’ when several companies took money from customers and afterwards changed their legal address. At the same time, the new legislative framework will reduce the withdrawal period of the license to 6 months, compared with the previous law stipulating 2 years in this respect, and a suspension period of up to 3 months. The suspension of the license will be performed in case the brevet will be missing – the document which shows the professional capacity of a person to work in a travel agency.