World's biggest tour operator to stage a comeback to Romania

TUI, the world's largest tour operator, will come back to Romania after a four years' absence and it will publish a special pamphlet promoting Romania as a summer destination, Tourism Minister Elena Udrea said on Tuesday.

'TUI has returned to Romania after four years and today's meeting with TUI officials marks the culmination of our efforts that started back in March at the Berlin Travel Fair. Staring with 2010, Romania will be promoted as a summer destination in a special pamphlet that will be distributed next year to 10,000 TUI resellers in Germany,' said Udrea.

She said the 24-page pamphlet will be issued in a 120,000-copy run.

TUI withdrew from Romania in 2005 because the country failed to meet tourist security standards and the value for money standard but lately Ms. Udrea has pushed things forward and TUI returned to Romania, hopefully for a long time, says TUI Germany Product Quality Manager Gero Eden.

Talks between Udrea and TUI officials were aimed at establishing a strategy for future cooperation between TUI Germany and the Romanian Tourism Ministry for incoming German and other European visitors.

The Tourism Ministry is said to have facilitated negotiations between TUI and the hotels to be officially presented in TUI catalogues. Besides Black Sea coast holidays, TUI will also offer German tourists round trips elsewhere in Romania.

Romania Meets IMF's Loan Terms, With 'Maybe' One Exception - Official
Romania has met almost all targets set for September of its EUR13 billion standby arrangement with the International Monetary Fund, with maybe one exception, IMF mission's head Jeffrey Franks said Wednesday.

Franks didn't say what the exception was, but mentioned Romanian authorities must still approve a series of laws in the near future.
He said the IMF has proved flexible related to the loan terms, as signals pointing to a worsening of the Romanian economy were independent of the authorities' will.
Last week, an IMF official said Romania must adopt the 2010 budget by the yearend to receive the next tranches of the loan in due time.

On Wednesday, the parliament empowered the country's caretaker government to forward the 2010 draft budget for approval, as the Cabinet was stripped of its powers after it failed a no-confidence vote early last month.

The IMF, which oversees a EUR20 billion loan package to Romania that also includes funds from the EU and other international lenders, has sent a second mission to Romania late October to review the country's economic performance.

Romania's budget deficit targets will be left unchanged at 7.3% of the gross domestic product and at 5.9% of the GDP for 2009 and 2010, respectively, Franks said.
However, the IMF will show leniency to Romania in finding methods to avoid exceeding these caps, Franks added.

mediafax.ro