The National Association of Rural, Ecological and Cultural Tourism in Moldova (ANTREC) considers that Moldova would be visited by more foreign tourists if concessions are granted for opening and promoting rural houses. Contacted by IPN, the Association’s head Svetlana Lazar said that the rural houses in Moldova would be a solution for the people from villages who, besides the salary, would be able to earn additional incomes and, as a result, to develop their domestic business instead of going abroad to work.
Svetlana Lazar said that in order to obtain the status of rural house, the owners must meet strict sanitary norms and attend training courses to be able to serve tourists. They will also have to provide health certificates for the persons involved in serving tourists and for the domestic animals whose produce will be used to prepare food.
“We cannot yet overcome this barrier of equal attitude to the rural people who receive guests in their own houses and to those who build a hotel or tourist pension and invest more money, but also earn more. We suggested introducing the notion of rural house, where the owners serve tourists as guests in their own house and must not present reports. We also proposed simplifying the procedure for registering their incomes,” said Svetlana Lazar.
Representatives of the Association had discussions with rural mayors. In 99% of the cases, the mayors said they would not collect taxes for such an authorization so that the villages develop and the people remain at home. “Such a business would bring additional revenues to villagers. The rural houses would charge lower prices and we will thus show how profitable it is to earn money from serving as many tourists as possible,” stated Svetlana Lazar.
She added that there are not many tourist pensions in Moldova. As a result, they charge higher prices than in Ukraine and Romania. The Moldovan tourist pensions are mainly in demand during the winter holidays, but during the year the economic entities sustain losses. There are pensions that work only on holidays.
According to the head of ANTREC, there are many entrepreneurs who would like to start a rural tourism business, but there are many obstacles, including the difficult procedure for opening tourist pensions and financial reporting. The entrepreneurs should found a limited liability company to present accounting reports. In order to avoid the bureaucratic procedures, the ANTREC proposed simplifying the procedure for obtaining authorizations for tourist pensions. Currently, a company that wants to open a tourist pension in rural areas must present the same set of documents as for opening a hotel in town.
