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Tourism :The spa and balneary industry in Romania risks bankruptcy
The balneary and spa industry is preparing to close down the gates of resorts and send the specialists in the domain home, if the measures to reopen will not be adopted ‘ very soon’, warns the representatives of the Organisation of th Employers in Balneary Tourism in Romania (OPTBR), adding that over 60% of th companies in the industry will not survive to the end of this year.
Although the investors in the balneary industry say they are satisfied with the decision to reopen restaurants, they state that at present they are in the impossibility to function in the future, as the tourists do not come to balneary resorts’ to serve meals only’.
‘The balneary and spa represent complete packages of spa, meals, which cannot function independently. We cannot expect that tourists come to resorts and balnerary resorts only to serve meals. At present, we risk that the tens of millions of euro invested in the last years in this industry, all the efforts to revitalise the Romanian balneology and the development of a SPA system at European level will be lost, both for the Romanian budget and for our specialists who are appreciated in the world’ stated Nicu Radulescu, the chairman of OPTBR.
According to the quoted source, Romania, the country with the richest balneary resources in Europe is closed down at present, without being able to use its natural elements. The hotels in the balneary resorts with balneary and spa facilities, including indoor swimming pools, closed down in March, not being able to function as it happened before the pandemics.
The data were centralised and sent to ESPA, the European Association SPA ‘ which expresses some worry and support for the colleagues in Romania’ which represents at present the only country which is not functional in this sector and whose reports are worrying for the future of the industry.
‘After the agreement of OMS in April and the negotiations with the ministries of health and tourism, all balneary European resorts are functional. We are sorry for our colleagues in Romania and it is difficult to understand the blockage they face, especially, the health tourism industry in Romania has constantly developed over the last decade only due to the efforts of the private sector’ says the document of the ESPA chairman, Thierry Dubois.
The official letter signed on 18 th August in Brussels closes with the message:’ in the name of the ESPA Council, we are together with our colleagues in OPTBR with the hope to convince the decision factors in Romania to open the health resorts and to recommend them to the citizens as well’ the press release of the employers’ organisation says.
In this context, OPTBR sent an open letter to the government where they present the situation of the organisations in Romania which continue the fight to avoid collapse of the industry.