Hotel owners who donaa‚¬a„¢t invest risk expropriation, says Tourism Minister

Newsroom 06/12/2010 | 11:39

Romanian hotel owners who don’t invest and keep their hotels in ruins despite buying them “for nothing” risk fines and even expropriation said Regional Development and Tourism Minster Elena Udrea. She added that a law that allows such sanctions already exists.

The statement comes after the mayor Sangeorz-Bai, a Romanian spa resort, complained to the minister that the resort is affected by the lack of investments from the local hotel owners. “This is something that I have always said and the government is currently discussing it also. Only a coercive solution, expropriation, will do. We’ve passed a law a few weeks ago that allows expropriation and the state has the right to take over buildings in tourist resorts that are not maintained in a good state and used for tourism purposes,” said Udrea.

The minister also explained that tourism related privatizations have been made defectively for the past 20 years. “Those who have acquired hotels are owners and it is now very hard to change that. We are trying all sorts of laws, but each time the private property rights are pointed out to us. However, the property rights of some citizens should not affect the rights of other citizens to have access to quality tourism and beautiful cities. Each time we want to take measures we come against this absolute private property rights,” complained Udrea.