The Tourism Agency, by the end of this year, aims to obtain the amendment of the legislation so that a tax for Moldova’s promotion is instituted for all the Moldovan tourists travelling abroad.

“The promotion tax will enable to create a fund for developing domestic and incoming tourism,” the Tourism Agency’s director Nicolae Platon has told IPN. A tax of 10 lei is proposed for the tourists who travel to zone I (Ukraine and the CIS countries), of 20 lei for those who travel to zone II (Europe) and of 30 lei for trips to zone III (the U.S. and the exotic countries).

The collected money – an estimated 4 million lei a year – will be used to print promotional materials about the Republic of Moldova. They will be distributed at different tourist and cultural-artistic events.

A trip to Antalya now costs about €500 per person, while after the promotion tax is instituted it will cost €501, exemplified Nicolae Palton. As many as 147,000 Moldovans traveled abroad last year.