Romania’s tourism minister: Holiday vouchers brought the shadow economy to light

The holiday vouchers brought a large part of the shadow economy to light, with the number of tourism operators applying for a license going up by 60% last year, tourism minister Bogdan Trif said, quoted by Agerpres.

In the first quarter of this year, the growth is of approximately 65%, the minister said.

“This is because these vouchers can be granted and managed only to licensed operators, authorized by the Tourism Ministry. In 2018, we had an increase of almost 60% of those applying for a license, and in the first quarter of 2019 we have a growth of almost 65% compared to 2018,” Trif said in a TV show at Digi24, quoted by Agerpres.

The holiday vouchers also determined more Romanians to spend their holidays in the country, the minister said. Although the RON 1,450 (EUR 305) granted only cover a two-three day holiday at the Romanian seaside, the sum is spend in Romania and not abroad, the minister said.

Last year was the first one when holiday vouchers were granted. Almost 1.2 million Romanians benefited from this measure.

“We injected almost EUR 400 million in this sector. The tourism operators asked us to not give up this measure and we will maintain it in 2019 and 2020. We are thinking about improving it in the coming years,” the minister said.

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