Romania's National Association of Travel Agencies (ANAT) says it is "incomprehensible" the extent to which Romania has included on the COVID-19 yellow list most European destinations, "based on irrelevant statistics that report only the number of new cases in the total population and does not take into account the fact that they test more and, implicitly, better control the epidemiological developments", report agerpres.
"Under memo 12 of March 4, 2021, ANAT called on the government for support by endorsing the memoranda regarding the protocols with Israel and Greece regarding the reciprocal access of tourists, in order to unblock the sale of Romania as a tourist destination on those markets, as well as the access of Romanian tourists to those destinations. Unfortunately, that has not materialised yet and the summer season is nearing in. As such, ANAT sent yesterday [April 27] a new open letter to the attention of Mr Florin Citu, prime minister and chairman of the National Committee for Emergency Situations (CNSU), and Mr Claudiu Nasui, minister of the economy, entrepreneurship and tourism, expressing its concern with the introduction on the yellow list of some countries where tourists coming to Romania originate and where Romanian tourists travel. The measure has again led to a wave of holiday cancellations and refunds, given that the business state of travel agencies is at least delicate. At the same time, the countries of the European Union officially agreed last week to introduce the so-called digital green certificates as a step towards reopening tourism this summer," ANAT officials said in a statement released on Wednesday.
According to ANAT, Israel - the country that in the past years was the main pillar of incoming tourism in Romania and which is also a destination requested by thousands of Romanian tourists - submitted to Romanian officials a proposal to sign a bilateral agreement recognising Romanian vaccination certificates, so that serological tests may no longer be necessary, but it has not received any answer.
Also, almost a month ago, Greece proposed a similar memorandum to Romania and announced the opening of tourist traffic in mid-April for the citizens of the other member states of the European Union, under concrete circumstances.
Currently, the yellow list includes about 60 countries, such as Cyprus, Turkey, France, Italy, Maldives, Croatia, Belgium and Bulgaria.
At the same time, CNSU Decision Article 2(5) mentions that international transport operators are forbidden to board for travel to Romania persons not yet vaccinated, without proof of antibodies or who do not present a negative test.
ANAT Chairman Dumitru Luca points out that all tourism employers support the vaccination campaign and the need to accelerate it.
ANAT requests the government to provide support with the necessary steps in order to adopt a set of clear and relaxed guidelines for tourist movement by revising the criteria for introducing various states and territories on the yellow list and by signing co-operation protocols with countries that are target markets for Romanian tourism.
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