Bucharest mayor announces measures to boost tourism in the city

Bucharest City Hall is to take several measures to support the tourism sector in the city. Among them, tax cuts for the tourism industry and a new Conference Center in the capital, general mayor Gabriela Firea announced on Thursday, May 28, after a discussion with representatives of the business environment and the tourism sector.

Tourism is one of the industries most affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

Mayor Gabriela Firea said she wants to apply in Bucharest the model of other European capitals, where there is good cooperation between the public and private sectors, for the benefit employees and the economic situation as a whole.

“Participants made a series of proposals for this sector […], and general mayor Gabriela Firea gave assurances that she would analyze the possibility of their application - respectively presented the stage of those already in preparation,” reads the press release.

The list of measures “already in preparation” includes the reduction of certain taxes for the tourism industry, a new Conference Center and a House of Tourism (which would be a space for joint meetings and working sessions between major tour operators and municipal services), and the transformation of the current tourism body of the Capital (Bucharest Tourism Board - BTB) into a destination management organization.

The list of measures discussed on Thursday also includes events to encourage tourist traffic; vouchers for public transport and for visiting cultural objectives (such as museums, galleries), which would be distributed by hotels; setting up parking spaces for tourist buses; new tourist information centers; setting up a central bus station of Bucharest; the introduction of multilingual display in STB means of public transport.

The Bucharest Monuments and Tourist Heritage Administration (AMPT) is also working on a campaign to promote the monuments in the city, mayor Gabriela Firea also said.

(Photo source: Facebook/Gabriela Firea)