The new Tourism law will entail regulations meant to reduce fiscal fraud, Romanian Tourism minister Elena Udrea said. She believes that "Everyone or almost everyone commits fiscal fraud" in the Romanian tourism business. She says it's the same from pensions to big hotels: because they "never declare how many tourists they lodge".

  • One regulation featured in the new law for Tourism addresses the minimum tax, and it is likely to affect only pensions and restaurants. We hope that this measure, alongside other approaches we have taken - like introducing holiday tickets - would bring to light the dark regions of Romania's tourism, namely the areas evading tax. After showing all summer long on TV how crowded our beaches are, we hear that there have only been a few, that clients were scarce", Elena Udrea said.
  • The Tourism minister notes that the new law plans a system of centralising data that hotel owners or administrators will need to supply to the minister faster than they're currently required. For example, the number of tourists may have to be reported weekly. "We're trying to put a great pressure on lodgers, to force them into legality", she added.
  • According to Elena Udrea, another problem of Romania's tourism relates to the authorisation requirements. The pensions in the country side need to respect the same conditions as a hotel with 100 rooms, according to the law, a detail which the Tourism minister tags as "unfair". Udrea said that the requirements in this case should be very relaxed and implying minimum costs, because "authorising a pension can costs up to 100 million lei. That is a lot for the owners and many of them prefer to function illegally. To expect them to respect the law, one must be reasonable and logical", the Tourism minister said.