The National Association of Travel Agencies (ANAT) welcomes Greece's initiative to reopen tourism season as of May 14 and considers that this should be a model for Romania as well.

According to an ANAT release sent to AGERPRES on Thursday, specialized protocols can be created also in Romania for each activity and thousands of employees can be trained, under the responsibility of the Ministry of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Tourism, in cooperation with other ministries and state institutions and with private sector representatives.

"Romania should follow the example of Greece, through concrete actions, through predictability, but also through promotion, which must be started from now on, in order to ensure a good future for the incoming tourism. Only this way can we create the premises for the relaunch of tourism. Tourism is an industry of national interest, and incoming means export of services. We are even talking about a simple, non-polluting form of export - foreign tourists come to our country. We just need to promote ourselves efficiently and prepare the tourist product. (...) Unfortunately, the Romanian state often forgets that exporting services in general and incoming in particular is the most efficient way to bring money into the country," said ANAT chairman Dumitru Luca.

In his turn, the vice-chairman of ANAT, Alin Burcea, considers that the tourist opening of Greece is an excellent signal for outgoing tourism, as this country has been for a long time one of the main traditional tourist destinations of Romania.

"On the other hand, all forms of tourism are interconnected, including outgoing and incoming. A link between two countries can ensure a reciprocal movement of tourists. For several years, Romania has also begun to become an interesting tourist destination for Greeks, our country being complementary to Greece in many ways. I hope that the Romanian Government will take an example from our Greek friends and apply the same measures. We have nothing to lose, on the contrary, only to gain", says Burcea.

Greek Tourism Minister Haris Theocharis announced a few days ago at the ITB Berlin International Travel Exchange that Greek tourism will open on May 14. Thus, access will be allowed to those who have either been vaccinated or acquired antibodies to the new coronavirus due to infection or will make proof of a negative COVID-19 test result.

The Greek Minister of Tourism will be in Romania next week, where he will have a meeting with his Romanian counterpart, Claudiu Nasui, and "ANAT has high hopes and expectations from this meeting." AGERPRES (RO - author: Mariana Nica, editor: Oana Tilica; EN - author: Bogdan Gabaroi, editor: Adina Panaitescu)