Tourism affected by economic crisis

The economic crisis causes headaches to tour operators. The previous years, practically all the tickets for July-August were reserved by June 20-25. This season, the demand fell by 20%, Nicolae Platon, president of the National Association of Travel Agencies, has told Info-Prim Neo. The five-star hotels are not in demand anymore. They are replaced by three and four-star hotels. This will lead to a reduction in the prices of tickets owing to the cheaper accommodation. The Moldovan tourists prefer Turkey and Bulgaria, as before. The tour operators from these countries have announced additional discounts besides the special offers provided every year In order to avoid a shortage of clients, the Moldovan travel agencies that sell tickets for foreign destinations reduced the commission, Nicolae Platon said. The holiday packages for May sold well due to the lower price compared with the summer months. Accoridng to the statistics of the travel agencies of Moldova, 33,500 Moldovans last year used the services of agencies to travel to Turkey, 16,000 to Bulgaria, 15,900 to Ukraine, while 9,800 to Romania. Romania was excluded from tourist destinations in 2007, when a visa system was introduced. The demand will decrease even more as the Government of Romania on May 14 this year adopted a clause, which says that a tourist must have a bank deposit of at least 5,000 euros to be allowed to enter Romania. However, tourism is not so seriously affected by the economic crisis, compared with other sectors, because the people save money for vacation throughout the year, the president of the National Association of Travel Agencies said.