More and more tourists are opting to trade staying at a city hotel for staying at rural house, where they can get fresh air and traditional meals. Agrotourism is an industry that is growing at fast pace, say specialist from the Tourism Agency. Contacted by Info-Prim Neo, head of the Service for the analysis, monitoring and evaluation of policies of the Tourism Agency Victor Ciobanu said that there 15 agrotourism pensions throughout the country, and 40 more are up for approval. agrotourism pensions divide, according to the European model, into family pension (up to 5 rooms) and group pensions (over 5 rooms). The owners have a mini household, and offer their client eco-clean products of their own production or from other farms of the region. The “charming” pensions, or the recommended ones, are those which can offer their clients something special. There are also pensions for fishing, hunting or vineyard pensions. “Agrotourism is important for Moldovans, because the last few years register a trend in people evading cities and going to agrotourism pensions, where they get clean air and traditional meals. While benefiting from the beauty of traditional peasant houses they can also take part in field work, which varies from season to season. There is a trend in going back to the roots. For foreign tourists agrotourism is a possibility to find out more about our culture, knowing that they come from different cultures, with different traditions, and they happy to discover our lands”, Victor Ciobanu mentioned. The prices are set individually by every economic agent. The State does meddle with their activity. When asked if there are any subsidies for this sector, Victor Ciobanu said that the State can only help the touristic operators in promoting their businesses by printing hand-out ads, organizing exhibitions, as well as through draft Laws on this sector. “Moldovans want to live in Europe, but have a Soviet mentality. Economic agents want money from a State that is already poor”, added the Tourism Agency employee. Anatolie Botnaru, owner of an agrotourism pension in the central part of Moldova, stated that foreign tourists truly appreciate the services they are offered at the pension. “We have a group of Swedes who came just for us. When they were leaving Sweden they didn’t even know where Moldova is. Tourists choose to visit our country for its rustic destinations. They like to walk around the garden and watch how vegetables and greens are grown. In winter, the number of visitors is much bigger than in summer; many choose to stay at our pension instead of a hotel in Chisinau”, said Anatolie Botnaru. Nevertheless, there are some issues. Beyond the lack of culture of our people, which creates a bad image for the Moldova, the lack of a traffic infrastructure is as detrimental. The roads are bad, some road signs and village nameplates are missing. Another owner, from the northern part of the country, Sergiu Hanganu mentioned the same issues: lack of roads and infrastructure. “Each of us could host guests in their guest house; in fact, this is what rural tourism is. What needs to be changed is the attitude towards this field. Presently, we are in the same plate as the hotels and restaurants from the capital; there is no particular legislation for us, which refers to the common villager. This type of business is not a store or a bar”, said Sergiu Hanganu. The patron tries to involve tourists in farming activities; a delegation from Germany even joined in on collecting grapes. The Tourism Agency organizes an annual exhibition on tourism, leisure and the hotel industry dubbed “Tourism. Leisure. Hotels”, where economic agents come with various offers. 130 agencies from different countries gathered for this year’s exhibition; last year, the event brought together 104 participants.