Romanian tour operators ask for more substantial help from the Govt.

Members of the association of Romanian tour operators (ANAT) have declared themselves “deeply disappointed” with the Government’s emergency ordinances providing support for local enterprises hit by the COVID-19 crisis.

The association outlines several measures that would really help tour operators cope with their financial problems.

The tour operators do not qualify for some of the provisions and, even if they did qualify, the provisions would not help them survive, ANAT argues.

While the revenues plunged to zero, the tour operators incur huge expenditures since the customers are asking to get back their front payments, part of which the tour operators have already used to book hotel rooms and flights. Furthermore, tour operators face a huge volume of activity as they have to settle each demand from their customers separately, ANAT argues.

Three of the main measures proposed by ANAT to the Government for helping the tour operators survive are writing off (as opposed to deferring) the tax payments owed by tour operators to the state budget, providing working capital through state-owned banks, and suspending the law (otherwise under investigation by the EU) that provides for full repayment of front payment made by tour operators’ clients.

In exchange, ANAT proposes the compensation of their customers with vouchers valid for the next 24 months.

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