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Romania's Minister of the Economy, Entrepreneurship and Tourism Radu Oprea said on Wednesday that he is convinced that the number of Qatari tourists to Romania will increase, but a series of investment, hotels at a very high standard are needed to make that happen.
Oprea made these clarifications at a news conference at the end of his visit to Qatar in the official retinue of Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu. He was asked if Romania and Qatar will consider tourism for future collaboration or a memorandum.
"There is great potential in the tourism area. If we mean Romanian tourists visiting Doha and Qatar, you will find that we have improved on the pandemic period: today there are around 7,400 in the first half, there were 12,000 last year, during the pandemic there were over 16,000, so from there is a dynamic. Because we have entered the air and naval Schengen, I am convinced that the number of Qatari tourists to Romania will increase, but in order to increase such tourism we need investment, hotels living up to certain standards - seven stars, a very high standard, as those in the Gulf area are used to finding," Oprea said.
He added that he discussed with potential tourism investors in Qatar, and they are determined to come to Romania very quickly.
"We have a firm one-month deadline that the prime minister imposed today for a joint commission that has to come up with a list of projects. The field is very varied. In our discussions with the Association of Businessmen, we went from tourism to large projects in all fields of activity, to industry, including the pharmaceutical industry. There are interests in developing such collaboration in all these areas. Representatives of the manufacturing industry produce in Qatar, they want to export to Romania, we invited them to invest in Romania. We will set up this joint committee very quickly. We also want to have a business forum with the possibility for representatives of the business community from Romania to get together with representatives of Qatar's business community, and I think it is the best and fastest formula to identify opportunities, from investment in tourism to investment in the pharmaceutical industry, passing through all areas of activity you can think of."
