Romanian Tourism Would Drop 15-20% In 2009 Without Holiday Tickets – Ministry

“If we do not immediately adopt this draft law, we consider that tourist traffic in Romania will drop by 15 to 20% this year, as a consequence of the financial crisis and the lower travel budgets, and trips and short vacations, as well as health-related travel, will turn to neighbor countries, especially Hungary and Bulgaria,” said the ordinance’s substantiation note.

According to the Ministry of Tourism, because of the crisis, travel budgets will be lower this year and “a rise in plane ticket prices is likely,” which will lead to more expensive trips abroad.

A large share of small hotels and pension houses are not authorized by the ministry, and so cannot be subject to fiscal and quality checks. The holiday ticket system demands that all payments to hotels be made through a bank, which leads to the taxation of “a lot” of trips that do not currently contribute to the state budget.

“Holiday tickets may be accepted only by authorized economic operators, and this will compel them to request authorization, in order to join the system,” says the note.

Holiday tickets, which were introduced by the Government this year, through an emergency ordinance approved in February, may only be issued by employers who turned a profit in the previous fiscal year. The tickets will have a set value of up to six gross salaries. The minimum wage is currently 600 lei (EUR1=RON4.2810).

The tickets have a face value between RON10 and RON50, which is covered entirely by the employer, and may only be used to purchase tourist service packages from firms authorized by the Ministry of Tourism. The term of validity is one year, and their equivalent value is not taken into account when computing wage income.