The Government's decision to reduce the VAT from 24% to 9% for the all-inclusive travel packages will help decrease hotel tariffs in Romania by up to 10% and will increase the number of tourists, said Alin Burcea, the first vice-president of the National Association of Travel Agencies (ANAT) and owner of the Paralela 45 travel agency, reports local Agerpres.

Tourists staying at a hotel in Romania have enjoyed so far breakfast charged with 9% VAT, but if they wanted to have lunch or dinner at the restaurant, the VAT rate was 24%.

Prime Minister Victor Ponta recently announced after talks with the International Monetary Fund, European Commission and World Bank delegations that the VAT for all-inclusive tourism packages will drop to 9% starting 2015.

editor@romania-insider.com