Nicolae Platon, chairman of the National Association of Travel Agencies of Moldova (ANAT), considers that the cancellation of the visa regime for Romanian travelers will encourage the development of the incoming tourism. In an interview for “Monitorul de Business", a journal issued by IDIS “Viitorul", Nicolae Platon said that after this regime was introduced, the sales of some of the hotels dropped by up to 70%, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to Platon, the number of Romanian tourists was very large. When the regime was introduced in April, many of the hotels started to lay off personnel, sending them on forced leave. “We asked that until the visa problem with Romania is solved the tourists be issued with visas on the basis of warrants granted by travel agencies, as a visa is issued within two months,” Platon said. Nicolae Platon underlined the necessity of reopening the consular service at the Chisinau International Airport. “4,000-5,000 travelers were coming yearly from Turkey for instance. After this service was closed, the figure fell to 800.” Another priority is the liberalization of prices of airline services. “The tickets in Moldova are very expensive. The transportation costs accounts for more than 60% of the price of a tourist package for Moldova, which costs 800 euros all inclusive or ultra all inclusive for Turkey for example,” Platon said. He also referred to the green corridor at the airport, which “is not functional as the tourists coming to Moldova are searched thoroughly, no matter what corridor they use.” May and June were beneficial to the national travel agencies. The sales started to decline at the end of June owing to the economic crisis on the one hand and the early elections on the other hand as most of the politicians and personnel involved in the election campaign could not go on vacation, the chairman of ANAT said. Speaking about the crisis and its effects on the Moldovan tourism market, Nicolae Platon said that the largest number of tourists earlier chose luxury hotels (according to the data for 2007-2008, this figure was 75% - 80%), but now they pick five-star standard and plus hotels. The number of tourists choosing luxury hotels dropped by 20%- 25%. Owing to the economic crisis, this year the travel agencies decreased the commission for the summer period to 50%, while some of the agencies offered discounts of up to 70%.