Holiday vouchers to be granted on July 1 in Romania

Holiday vouchers will be granted on July 1 in electronic form and will be nominal, according to a Government emergency ordinance draft. The ordinance was posted for public consultation on the Tourism Ministry’s website. People who sell their vouchers to others can get fines that may amount to up to 14 gross minimum wages, according to the draft law. The voucher’s value is equal to the gross minimum salary from that year. For 2017, the voucher is worth RON 1,450 (EUR 318). The holiday vouchers will be granted to about 1.2 million people working in the public sector and the measure will have a budget impact of about EUR 400 million. However, the Government hopes that this measure will boost the local tourism sector and increase its contribution to the state budget. Tourism currently has an impact of about 1.5% of the GDP. The Government also aims to stop "the exodus of the labor force in the field of tourism to other states in the relative neighborhood of Romania" through this measure. editor@romania-insider.com