In the Republic of Moldova, there are about 250 tourist accommodation facilities. The hotels are the most numerous ones and are followed by pensions, villages, motels and spas. Director of the Tourism Agency of Moldova Stanislav Rusu has told IPN that the official statistics do not include private apartments and village homes that provide accommodation. Of the 250 registered accommodation facilities, only 120 possess classification certificates.
“Any accommodation facility should report the number of rooms, the number of tourists that visited it, the occupancy rate and other data to the National Bureau of Statistics once in half a year. Last year, for example, 130,000 foreign tourists stopped at hotels, but we had over 3 million tourists. A question thus arises: where did the others stop?” said Stanislav Rusu.
The legislation concerning accommodation facilities was modified. Until now a rural pension or a hotel had to mandatorily register as business entities and possess classification documents that specified the accommodation type and comfort degree provided for tourists, by the number of stars. Starting with last November, this condition has applied only to accommodation facilities with more than ten rooms.
The permissive documents are obtained by a simple notification. Any business entity can notify the local authorities (mayor’s office) of the intention to run a hotel, a villa or a pension and will get an answer by mail that the notification was taken into account and the business can be run. No one checks the comfort degree at these facilities. “It is in the interest of the state for these services to be of a high quality as it is about the image. The managers who do not have studies in tourism should study and obtain such knowledge. It won’t be a mandatory condition, but rather a right,” stated the director of the Tourism Agency. He noted that the classification of accommodation units is important for the state and for tourists so that they benefit from high-quality services. In Moldova, there is no authority that would regulate this sector.
About 70% of the hotels with more than 20 rooms are concentrated in Chisinau. The tourist villas with up to ten rooms are located outside the city, in picturesque areas, such as Vadul lui Voda. In rural areas, there are rural pensions with up to three rooms. The spas with a larger accommodation capacity are situated in places with thermal water sources or other factors that are beneficial to health.
