“We ask the Prime Minister to urgently establish a professional and independent body to coordinate the promotion of Romania, a Destination Management Organization,” reads a statement sent Monday morning by Ovidiu Tudor, president of Incoming Romania Association. With Romania’s entry on the red list of the incidence of Covid 19 cases, the few foreign tourists who were planning to come to Romania this fall announced the travel agencies and accommodation units that they are giving up our country in favor of safer destinations and better known. The blow is an extremely painful one for the Romanian tour operators who are struggling to survive from one day to the next in a chaotic industry, lacking regulations or coordination, the communiqué also shows.
What do the members of the Incoming Romania Association say:
- Tourism in general, but especially incoming tourism has become a sector of no one, completely ignored by a government in which not only is there no longer a ministry to coordinate it, but, worse, there is no department. no direction or at least an officially charged person. In other words, Romanian tourism has officially died.
- Given that all European countries have made the tourism strategy a major tool to recover the losses recorded during the pandemic, Romania has no minimum plan, despite desperate calls from associations and professionals in the field. The official presentation site, www.romania.travel is totally non-functional because no one has renewed the internet domain! Not to mention the promotion budget, marketing program or at least a short-term vision!
- After two years, 2020 and 2021, in which Romania’s participation in tourism fairs was anemic and insignificant, unfortunately, the following year is announced as one in which our country will disappear completely from the map of world tourism. For the first time since 1980, the destination Romania is missing from the World Travel Market (London) – the second largest tourism exhibition event in the world. The incompetence, indolence and indifference of those who lead us have reached maximum levels.
- Although incoming tourism is one of the few areas that contributes positively to improving the country’s image, the lack of vision compromises us for years to come.
- In this dark context, the association Incoming Romania, together with all the actors who support and live in the Romanian incoming, both those in the commercial and associative spheres, ask the Prime Minister to urgently establish a professional and independent body to coordinate promoting Romania, a capable, competent Destination Management Organization with clear objectives.
In the 12th hour, we ask to be led by professionals with vision, desire and abilities to build the image that Romania and its beauties deserve worldwide. We express for once again, as we have always done, the openness and interest of collaborating with the officials to save the incoming.
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