Tourism employers' associations on losses at the Black Sea resorts due to coronavirus

Tourism businesses risk to die if work does not resume from May 15th and, as we approach summer, every day is absolutely vital for the tourism industry, the chairman of the Prahova Tourism Promotion and Development Association, Adi Voican told AGERPRES on Friday.

"1st of May, Labor Day for decades, today's day of non-work. We are mostly in furlough, those in the tourism industry, sad, but at the same time eager to hear signs of optimism from our decision-makers. Let's hope that 15 May be a date from where we're starting to resume our work for the 2020 season, otherwise we are entering an extremely dangerous area. Businesses risk going to die, they won't restart, even if in two weeks or three weeks someone says: resume work. They can't start. As we get closer to summer, every day is absolutely vital for the Romanian tourism industry. Compared to last year, for example, we suspect that 25 million euros were lost only for the three nights of mini-holiday (in the Prahova Valley, ed.n.). If we look at March, April and we know that there were 5.5 million nights of accommodation missing during this period (in all tourism in Romania, ed.n.) and probably almost half a billion euros were lost this year compared to last year's figures," Adi Voican said.

In his opinion, mountain holidays will be the first option of the tourists, if they want to be more protected from the risks of the coronavirus and the units that offer only accommodation will probably be more advantageous.

The blow to Vama Veche's loss of the 1st of May package is felt in profit, that will drop by about 10%, and bearing in mind that most operators are local, with all kinds of small businesses, the loss is also felt in their family budget, Anca Nedea Pavel, executive director of the Mamaia-Constanta Employers Organization, told AGERPRES on Friday.

"Vama Veche used to be a favorite place for Romanians, but also for the foreigners. Interestingly, in the last five years Mamaia Nord and Vama Veche have managed to attract an exponential number of foreign tourists. It was an extraordinary atmosphere, it was already very crowded, even if the weather was not very hot at this time of year. Now we see a beautiful Vama, but deserted, sad, of course. If we are more realistic and we are now discussing budgets, for destinations like Vama Veche the blow given by the loss of the package of 1 May is felt in profit a lot, I think a 10% can say that it is lost with the loss of these days and matters a lot, especially as Vama moves even after 1 May, it had already been visited since the beginning of June. This means that in the end the losses with this period and, if they do not leave as soon as possible in June and the pandemic does not leave us, they will be even bigger, for those in Vama Veche, where the vast majority of operators are local, have all kinds of small businesses, I think that even in the family budget the loss feels very, very bad," said Anca Nedea Pavel.