A Tourism Federation was set up in Moldova to promote the tourist destinations of the country and to cooperate with similar organizations from abroad. Initially, the Federation established cooperation relations with the Federation of Associations for the Promotion of Tourism of Romania.
Alexandru Filipschi, director of a travel agency, said the tourism sector of Moldova is not very developed and something new was needed to revitalize it. “We encounter a lot of problems in tourism and cannot solve them without the support of similar organizations from the country and abroad. There is a shortage of projects aimed at promoting tourism. We decided to create a federation for promoting tourism. Its goals are to promote the national brand names, to stage training seminars for the personnel from the sector, to cooperate with institutions from the field. We will also organize roundtable meetings and launch new projects,” Alexandru Filipschi said in a news conference at IPN.
He noted that the development of partnerships of a high quality with institutions from the country will be a priority. “We will make maximum effort to formulate policies to promote the country. The federation will work hard to attract projects to develop tourism. Our country has extraordinary tourist potential and the problems can be solved by assiduous work and by our involvement. The creation of powerful teams and the support given by famous persons are the key to success. Today, on the day the federation was registered, we established cooperation relations with the similar federation of Romania,” stated Alexandru Filipschi.
In the same new conferee, Corina Martin, president of the Federation of Associations for the Promotion of Tourism of Romania, said that she made her first visit to Moldova in 2012 and was fascinated as the country seems to be from a fairytale, with very welcoming people. “We promised we will do more for the tourism from here. We will send more Romanian tourists to Moldova. We ascertained that Moldova can be a strategic market for Romania. None of the two countries had sufficient promotion on the other market. Therefore, the situation as regards the attraction of foreign tourists is not the desired one in both of the states. I think we must have a strategic alliance,” she stated.
Corina Martin considers that Moldova has very beautiful places that must be visited. “We must become involved and make effort for these places to be known. Not many Romanians would want now to vacation in Moldova. The problem resides in the lack of promotion. It would be easy to attract Romanian tourists as we speak the same language and the countries are not far from each other,” she said.
National tourism promoter, especially through the project “Let’s go to the countryside”, Alexei Gutaga noted that Moldova has what to show to the tourists. “We created the largest accommodation network in Moldova and can now lodge 2,500 people simultaneously. The Romanians who had been in Moldova chose to visit the Transaction region. We now have 39 houses that offer the tourists to take part in the harvesting of grapes and in making wine. Afterward, we invite them to fish in the Nistru River. The tourism sector of Moldova is not sufficiently promoted,” he said.
Catalina Adam, director of a travel agency, said that she has worked in the tourism industry for many years and the necessity of an organization that would promote this sector was felt. “We face problems related to us, as private individuals, and to the state, as regards the promotion and working out of motivational programs. We want to overcome these problems,” she stressed.
In the evening of September 30, the Tourism Federation of Moldova will hold its general assembly to decide the number of founding members and associates and to choose the organization’s administration.
