White Book of Tourism from Moldova launched

Chisinau, 14 June /MOLDPRES/ - The White Book on the reform of the normative and regulatory framework of the tourism industry from Moldova was launched in Chisinau today. The study was worked out at an initiative by the Economics and Infrastructure Ministry, in partnership with the Moldova Competitiveness Project, financed by the U.S. Agency for International development (USAID) and the government of Sweden.   

“The launch of the White Book of Tourism is a revolution in the tourism sector. I appreciate what we have done so far and I thank all those who got involved in the process of elaboration of this Book. We do not stop just at what is written on paper; a lot of steps due to be undertaken follow,” Economics and Infrastructure Minister Chiril Gaburici said. He also said that everything which is written in this Book “must be implemented and this means much more work than till present.”  

The White Book was worked out following consultations with the associative sector from the national tourism industry and was additionally consulted with the authorities, competent organizations and associations, the approvals of which were taken into account when processing the final version. The main goals set are the following: development of the inbound and domestic tourism; development of rural tourism and tourist destinations; ensuring the quality of services and effective protection of consumers; diversification of tourist products and excursion activities; improving the quality of training and labour force in the tourism sector; optimum fiscal policies and cutting the evasions; development of public-private partnerships in the field.     

Minister Chiril Gaburici reiterated that, to develop the tourism industry, it is important to strengthen the administrative capacity and the budgetary resources meant for promoting tourism and implementing policies in this sector. “The involvement of authorities is not enough. Those working in the tourism field should provide support too, namely through quality services and products, as we can promote the local tourism only in this way. Only a tourist contented with the service he/she enjoyed can persuade other potential tourists to visit Moldova,” the economics and infrastructure minister said.    

The White Book contains recommendations for the development of rural tourism and national tourist zones, for improving the statistic record system in the tourism sector, as well as recommendations on the institutional structure in the tourism field, legal regime of tourism agencies and tourism operators. According to the Turism 2020 tourism development strategy and the recommendations from the White Book, a roadmap was worked out, which contains the terms of implementation of the recommendations, as well as the competent institutions.    

(Reporter V. Bercu, editor A. Raileanu)