Tourism - the Romanian Seaside without Foreigners

The Romanian tourism will suffer the consequences of the integration. The number of the foreign tourists that have visited the Romanian seaside this year suffered an important decrease, with more than 19,000 tourists less than last year.

Only 10% of the tourists that visited the seaside were from other countries, according to the data from the South-East ANAT Regional Council. The number of nights spent in the Romanian lodgings by the sea decreased by 8.6%, and the average length of the vacation got to 3.7 days from 5.1 days.

IN THE PAST .On the whole, during the first nine months of the year, 5.89 million of foreign tourists have entered Romania, which 1% more than in 2005, according to the Federation of the Patronages in the Romanian Tourism (FPTR). The data of the federation show that, as far as the mountain area is concerned, the number of foreign tourists decreased by 16% this year, and the decrease for the seaside reached 30%. The number of Romanian tourists that have left for foreign destinations increased by 70%, reaching almost 5 million people. "As far as the foreign tourists and the occupation degree are concerned, we are way below most of the other neighbor countries", Mihai Rajnita, the Secretary General of the Federation for the Hotel Industry in Romania, stated. The authorities should spend money to attract the youth in this industry and to train the personnel in tourism, the FIHR representative continued. As far as the close adherence to the European Union is concerned, the Romanian touristy industry is not prepared. Some touristy units could be closed, because they work under the minimum productivity or profitability level, Rajnita added.

WITHOUT LEADER. The present situation of the National Tourism Authority (ANT), which hasn’t had any leader during the past four months, is inadmissible and an insult against the touristy industry, Alin Burcea, the ANAT Bucharest President, stated. He emphasized the fact that the ANT budget has a lot of important funds that are not used. This way, the money could get back to the state without the tourism benefiting from them. The representatives of the tourism patronages think of requesting the annulment of this institution. The ANT portfolio will be taken over by the DP (the Democrat Party), according to sources inside DP.

Competition - Fines for the Cable Operators The Competition Council has finalized the investigations of the Cable TV market and fined UPC Romania, RCS&RDS, Astral Telecom and Cablevision Romania with fines reaching a total value of 25.94 million lei (more than 7.5 million euros). For setting unjustified taxes in Bucharest, Cablevision Romania paid fines in total value of 0.273 million lei and UPC Romania paid 17,605 million lei.

Commissions-Troubled Private Pensions The commissions regarding the pension funds compared to the value of the contribution are not attractive at all for the great insurance companies. "We will wait and see the final form of the law for the compulsory private pensions in order to take a decision regarding our adherence to the system", Tudor Mircea Moldovan, the general director of the Association for the Private Administered Pensions in Romania, stated. The main objections of the companies in the association regard the administration fund of 2%, which is too small, and the value of the contribution of only 2%-6%, which makes the companies face important losses. On the other hand, there are eight commissions that a participant to a private pension scheme has to pay: for administration, for depositing, for custody, for audit, for distribution, for transactions, for auditing. "We cannot estimate the total value of these commissions, because only two of them belong to us and we pay for the other ones to other institutions, and they are negotiable", Moldovan stated. Sources in the market say these commissions could get to diminish the pension of the beneficiary by 1% each year. The reform of the pension system regards the development of the private funds segment by the step-by-step transfer of a part of the contributions paid by the employees for the social insurances with the help of the public pensions’ system. The decree says that all the employees and all the authorized natural bodies have the right to choose an optional pension fund