Tourism in Romania will be compromised starting January 1 – travel agencies. Investigation by Info-Prim Neo

Travel Agencies from Moldova assert that the number of Moldovan tourists in Romania will significantly reduce starting January 1, 2007, because Romanian Consulate accepts only applications for collective visas, excluding individual ones. Under these circumstances, companies say that Moldovan tourists who will have to wait in queues in order to obtain personal visas, will renounce upon the Romanian tourist destinations. On the other hand, officials from the Romanian diplomatic missions have a different view on this problem. Once with the considerable decrease of the Moldovan tourists’ inflow, the business of Moldovan travel agencies will get ruined, professionals in the field say. Some companies intend even to cancel contracts with their Romanian partners thus taking the risk of losing their money, because they have already paid the expenses for accommodation places in Romanian hotels and resorts. Representatives of the travel agencies say that, within a recent meeting with the Romanian consul in Chisinau, Ionut Dicu, he promised that they will have green light in the process of submitting applications for obtaining individual visas. Lately though, entries for individual visas have been rejected, only those concerning group visas being accepted. Companies say that issuing collective visas is possible only in cases when several families or groups of students solicit tourism agencies the same trips and destinations in Romania. But even in this case the organization of trips will be difficult because the travel bureaus do not have sufficient places in hotels, provided for by contracts. The situation seems even more complicated, given the fact that in the winter holidays period most of the tourists who travel to Romania are those who have enough money to travel by their own cars, and not in groups or by bus. The head of the National Association of Travel Agencies of Moldova, Nicolae Platon told Info-Prim Neo that there exists such a problem and that most of the tourist agents from Moldova are unsatisfied with the treatment they receive at the Romanian Consulate. According to Platon, after a short period when agencies could receive individual visas, this process has been suspended, despite the promises of the Romanian consul. Several entries for individual visas have been rejected by the Romanian Consulate in the case of Travel Agencies “Solei”, "Alpaca”, “Holiday Service”, including “Tromare” agency which have contracted the greatest number of accommodation places in Romanian resorts. Nicolae Platon said that two days ago he officially solicited the Romanian Embassy to accept the papers for individual visas submitted by the Travel Agencies from Moldova and to facilitate in this way the tourism to Romania, saying that not other country in the world offers collective visas. [Different opinions] Florin Lencu, Secretary of the Embassy of Romania in Chisinau told Info-Prim Neo that the tourist agencies can represent only a group of tourists and not each person separately. According to him, individuals who want to visit Romania can buy a ticket from the tourist agencies, but for a visa they have to go personally to the Consulate. The visa is free of charge and can be obtained during 2-5 days. Lencu mentioned that in order to avoid queues, the Consulate initiated the issuance of visas in November, and the on-line scheduling of citizens will start in short-time. “People should be understanding as regards the new conditions and must acknowledge that free visa issuance is a facility offered by the Romanian Government”, Florin Lencu added. The attempts of the reporter of Info-Prim Neo, during 3 days, to reach by phone the Romanian consul were not successful because of the busy phone line. Ionut Dicu, who was spotted at the consulate refused to make an official statement, asking the reporter to make a beforehand scheduling. Directly asked whether the travel agencies can or can not submit the documents for the issuance of individual visas, the consul was surprised of the fact that the travel agencies have problems at the consulate. According to him, on Thursday morning, individual visas were issued to three travel agencies. Ion Dicu told that all the answers related to the visa issuance were given within interviews offered to the local press and at the conferences with the tourist agencies, so that no more questions should appear. However, in the most comprehensive interview published by “Timpul” newspaper on December 1, 2006 nothing was said about the way the Consulate of Romania to Chisinau collaborates with the tourist bureaus. The Ambassador of Romania Filip Teodorescu also said nothing on this issue during the press conference organized on November 29. At the same press conference, the Romanian diplomat stated that the on-line scheduling system will be introduced, in order to avoid queues, crowd, involvement of doubtful persons, proposing visa- related services for money, will be excluded. After the introduction of this system, transparency will be guaranteed, the absorption capacity of visa requests will rise and unjustified expectations will be eliminated. The holders of the diplomatic passports, members of airplane crews, the persons granted with temporary or permanent residence on the territory of Romania will have the right to enter, leave, cross and stay on the territory of Romania without visa for 90 days each 6 months. The diplomatic mission and consular offices of Romania will offer multiple entrance visas, with one year validity term, with the right to stay for 90 days on the territory of the country each 6 months to bus and truck drivers, train crews, participants in joint or experience exchange programs, persons visiting relatives or the graves of the relatives and to journalists. Businessmen might obtain 5 year visas. The data provided by the National Bureau of Statistics show that in the first 9 months of 2006, the inflow of Moldova tourists who visited Romania using tourist companies constitutes 6134 persons, or by 23.8% more compared with the similar period of the last year. Romania was according to the official data the fourth destination preferred by Moldovan tourists, in this way surpassing Russia, 3687 tourists. The majority of Moldovan citizens prefer the tourist destinations from Bulgaria (17,753 persons), Turkey (13,206) and Ukraine (12,650). On the whole, in the analyzed period, over 58,932 citizens of Moldova left abroad using tourist companies, which represents a 25.5% increase compared with the same period of last year.