The year 2025 has seen a drastic collapse of nearly 64% in the issuance of new holiday vouchers compared with 2024, an unprecedented contraction of the most popular support tool in the tourism industry, with a major impact on the stability of Romania's tourism sector.
According to Adrian Voican, Vice-President of the National Association of Travel Agencies (ANAT), this sharp reduction in benefits allowed the state to achieve budget savings of almost 250 million euros in 2025. However, the repeated warnings from tourism operators point to the complete absence of compensatory measures: not a single leu from this amount was redirected towards the international promotion of Romania or projects supporting investment in quality tourism services.
'If even a minimum of 25 million euros of the 250 million saved by the state is not at least partially earmarked to promotion programmed and incoming travel incentives, we risk an extremely difficult 2026, without levers to attract Romanian or foreign tourists," said ANAT Vice-President.
According to the tour operator, official data provided by the Ministry of Finance and complied by ANAt confirm a sever contraction of the holiday voucher market last year. The most recent data show that 2025 marks the end of a period of relative stability, recording a drastic fall of nearly 64% in the issuance of new holiday vouchers compared with 2024. As for redeemed vouchers, the negative trend persists, with a decrease of almost 32%.
The collapse of over 60% in the volume of holiday vouchers for 2025 compared with the previous year represents a direct blow to Romania's tourism industry, significantly reducing the main driver that sustained the operations of hoteliers and travel agencies, emphasises Adrian Voican.
'This scheme was not just a simple social benefit, but a strategic economic instrument, vital for maintaining and improving occupancy rates during critical off-season periods. The disappearance of this steady flow of capital forces HoReCa operators into a vicious circle: a drastic reduction in investment resources, coupled with inevitable price pressures necessary to offset massive volume losses and to keep pace with inflation. The year 2026 could mark the relaunch of Romanian tourism if the state treats holiday vouchers as a strategic economic stimulus,' the ANAT Vice-President highlights.
He also noted that maintaining and increasing the value of holiday vouchers in line with current prices could ensure the flow of tourists needed to sustain jobs and develop HoReCa infrastructure.
'Updating and expanding this system would give operators the predictability they need to invest in service quality. A solid partnership between the business environment and the state, based on economically adapted holiday vouchers, represents the only real solution to avoid decline and maintain accommodation units at high standards of occupancy and performance,' concluded the ANAT Vice-President.
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