Travel agencies demand the honorable resignation of the Minister of Entrepreneurship and Tourism, Daniel Cadariu, according to the ANAT press release. The reason is that not all the main goals set at the beginning of the mandate in the field of tourism have been achieved.

What are the reasons, reports ANAT

1. Horeca2 state aid scheme aimed at compensating for losses caused by Covid in 2021 compared to 2019

Despite the fact that ANAT, together with other associations and patronages in the field, initiated discussions and meetings on the launch of the Horeca2 scheme since the beginning of the year, showing with concrete figures the need for the renewal of this aid scheme for SMEs, we were captured for 9 months, before the deadline On June 30, 2022, when the Temporary Framework for the provision of state aid in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic expired, which made it impossible to finance the scheme from the European funds allocated for this program.

In December 2021, ANAT sent a letter to the Ministry of Public Finance, in which, based on the INS data at the time (October 2021), it explained the need to continue supporting the recovery of SMEs in the tourism and HORECA sectors, which also register in 2021 a decrease of approximately 57% compared to from 2019. For comparison, the decrease in the total turnover of travel agencies in 2020 compared to 2019 was 69%, from 2.335 billion lei in 2019 to 727.5 million lei in 2020.

In the spirit of correct information, we would expect the ministry to tell us from the outset that there is no money or that this assistance scheme is not needed, rather than waiting until the legislative framework is finished to then say Again, work is starting on an interim framework for Horeca2 for Ukraine, which has a much smaller budget and will result in assistance of approximately 1,000 euros/SME. We refrain from further commenting on the effectiveness of such a program.

However, we hope that as a result of the discussions held last week, Mr. Prime Minister Chuke to find a solution to support us, especially now that many travel agencies are suffering significant losses due to the blocking of Blue Air.

We cannot find any justification for losing the structure of Horeca 2. Although the government passed Resolution no. 10, which paved the way for the adoption of the Horeca 2 scheme, the scheme itself was never written and approved until the EU covid framework expired. Ignorance or incompetence, the result is the same: a huge loss of a unique chance that will never be repeated! We call on the government to find an urgent solution to make up for this inexcusable failure.

ANAT has already launched a Flight Guarantee Fund for discussion to be able to provide refunds for ticket payments in the event of airline insolvency/bankruptcy.

2. Implementation of the Guarantee Fund

Recent events have proven that the insolvency insurance currently in use does not offer viable solutions in times of crisis, as it cannot guarantee full compensation to tourists as required by law. We asked Minister Cadariu to start work on a regulation that would regulate the creation of a Guarantee Fund for tourism packages, but we are not sure that the importance of this step was understood. It was only after the insolvency of Soley Tour, which opens up a series of challenges for the Ministry, led by his Lordship, and not just for the agencies, that the first meeting of the working group on the Guarantee Fund took place. We hope that this project will be completed.

3. Amendments to OG 2/2018, a regulatory act regulating the activities of travel agencies

The last two and a half years have shown us, both us and the European Commission, that, despite being a recently revised regulation, European Directive 2015/2302, transposed into Romanian law by OG 2/2018, does not offer viable solutions in situations of major crisis and imposes an unfair burden on travel agencies, which are forced to take full responsibility for the entire distribution chain of travel services. We remind you that, apart from travel agencies-organizers, no provider of travel services is required to have insolvency insurance.

4. Inbound promotion

Mr. Kadariu with great aplomb launched the draft Decree on the assistance of new arrivals. We are not bound by the fact that we worked on this project at the initiative of ANAT and AIR with former minister Bohdan Trif and that Mr. Cadariou is now conducting his initiation. The problem, however, is that the regulatory act blocks the Competition Council. Why then are we bragging about a project that doesn’t exist?

In Bulgaria today, each foreign tourist is given 35 euros. It shows us that it is possible!

5. Tourist fairs

The ministry that represents our interests has still not been able to find a way to agree with the same Competition Council so that travel agencies promoting Romania can participate free of charge in the national stand of Romania at international fairs under their logo, forcing them to participate under the auspices of associations to which they belong.

6. The Romanian coast

The summer of 2022 was marked by negative campaigns against the Romanian coast, which led to a significant decrease in sales for domestic tourism and especially for the coast. Although we asked the minister for support and public speaking, his lordship did not consider this a sufficiently important matter to take any supportive action.

7. Romania’s promotion budget

In 2022, the Ministry allocated a budget of 1.5 million euros for the promotion of Romania, which is a terrible amount compared to the real needs, which are about 10 times higher. Mr. However, the minister boasts that foreign tourist arrivals increased in 2022 compared to 2021 (still affected by the restrictive measures in the first quarter), which was absolutely normal! Let’s add that instead we are at 50% of the number of foreign tourists who arrived in Romania in 2019…

8. Direction management organizations

The much-discussed MDGs were finally enacted, not because Mr. Cadario was involved, but because employers worked hard to finalize the draft law in perfect form. At the moment, the legislative framework is incomplete and dysfunctional, without real financial solutions related to promotion needs, and without establishing national MDGs.

Mr. Kadariou started with enthusiasm, he created working groups with representatives of the tourism industry on all topics, he went on tours of the country, but everything has stalled, leaving behind many secretaries of state with no experience in tourism, who do not have the resources to carry out such complex tasks as called for pandemic, military conflict and energy crisis.