Interim Minister of Economy, Digitalisation, Entrepreneurship and Tourism Irineu Darău commented on the decline in demand for tourism on “Banii, azi” on TVR Info, attributing it to the contraction in overall consumption.

“This demand in tourism could not fail to fall because consumption has fallen,” he explained, adding that people are affected by rising prices and inflation and “sometimes give up a holiday.”

Regarding holiday vouchers, the minister said that he had always taken a balanced position. “Any incentive is good for a HoReCa industry, an industry in decline during this period,” the official said, adding that he did not consider vouchers the “perfect instrument” in the long term, arguing that “they have sometimes distorted the market”.

Darău compared the current situation in HoReCa with the pandemic period: “This year, we are finding that HoReCa is somewhat comparable to, let us say, the second part of the pandemic, when we likewise experienced lower consumption.” In this context, he said that the Ministry of Economy, through the Tourism Advisory Council, would have to “propose some measures to stimulate this sector”.

Among the solutions under consideration, the minister mentioned the reintroduction of the incoming tourism incentive, an incentive for attracting foreign tourists: “It must be reinstated […] so that we can reward agencies or airlines that bring foreign tourists who spend hundreds or thousands of euros in Romania on each stay.”

Darău also spoke about an issue frequently raised by HoReCa entrepreneurs – the lack of flexibility in the labour market outside the season. He proposed returning to the Kurzarbeit mechanism, which was also used during the pandemic: “I think we need to consider again […] some measures to make the labour market more flexible. We have that mechanism called Kurzarbeit, through which the sector could be given some flexibility outside the season.”