The vice-president of the National Association of Tourist Agencies (ANAT), Adrian Voican, has criticized the allocation structure of funds from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) for Destination Management Organizations (DMOs), pointing out that the money is directed to local authorities and not to professionals in the field. While industry representatives welcome the “last minute” recovery of a total of €10m in funding that risked being lost, they express dissatisfaction with the exclusion of private operators from direct access to the funds, warning of the risk of politicization of investment in tourism promotion.
According to the Minister of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Tourism, Irineu Darău, the EUR 10 million budget is made available to turn the MDGs into engines of local tourism, with responsibilities in development strategy, defining the destination brand and coordinating information centers. The funding mechanism, which is administratively simplified and accessible even to small localities, involves a partnership between an MDG and an administrative-territorial unit. An essential condition imposed is that at least 20% of the funding must be dedicated to the actual functioning of the organization, thus correcting the previous tendency to direct budgets exclusively towards infrastructure at the expense of institutional development.
However, the private sector points to major problems with the implementation timetable. Although the call was originally announced for December, it only entered public consultation in February, keeping the final deadline for June, which drastically restricts the time for serious projects. Adrian Voican said that the private sector feels “manipulated”, arguing that exclusive funding through mayors and county councils turns MDGs into a mere “mask” for attracting funds in the political arena. The ANAT official insists that, in order to have real results in the target markets, the funds should directly finance the MDGs as bodies of national importance, ensuring equal access to the private side.