Why is Romania not a more popular tourist destination? And do you think more investment in tourism could help the country’s economy? Its cities have architecture to rival that of Prague and Budapest, yet they get nowhere near as many visitors.
Why is Romania not a more popular tourist destination? And do you think more investment in tourism could help the country’s economy? Its cities have architecture to rival that of Prague and Budapest, yet they get nowhere near as many visitors.
26 comments
You really are not around from here ha?
Degeaba e frumoasa tara daca animalele sunt sălbatice 🤣
Incompetent people in public management.
First of all, infrastructure. It is hard to get to places. No highways in most part of the country, no good flights (except for 3-4 cities), no effort from the local authorities to promote and invest in tourism.
the best example is the black sea. Contanta (largest city) has a tremendous potential but it is just run by corrupt thiefs.
We aren’t as great as some might think. Moderate, we have a lot of things, none so amazing
We don’t like tourists around here, boy. Keep stepping.
More investments do indeed help, but you actually have to know how to use that money.
And that’s where our problem stands.
We, as a nation, are a dysfunctional democracy. We have issues like any other nation and currently our greatest dilemma is self-governing.
We seem to be stuck in a vicious cycle of choosing the wrong people to lead.
We do indeed have a Ministry of Tourism. The problem is the peopling leading it are corrupt and/or incompetent.
I mean just this past month, our most famous ex-tourism minister, Elena Udrea, was found guilty on charges of corruption (shocker? not so much), more here:
[https://www.romania-insider.com/romania-former-minister-elena-udrea-jail](https://www.romania-insider.com/romania-former-minister-elena-udrea-jail)
Just this past month, Romania had a stall in New York and we paid 8000 euro for a group of people to go there and post some printed pictures on a dark-curtain wall. A national scandal ensued of course:
[https://www.tylaz.net/2022/04/18/scandal-in-tourism-caused-by-the-images-with-romanias-stand-at-a-fair-in-new-york-the-reaction-of-the-ministry-of-tourism/](https://www.tylaz.net/2022/04/18/scandal-in-tourism-caused-by-the-images-with-romanias-stand-at-a-fair-in-new-york-the-reaction-of-the-ministry-of-tourism/)
More money is always helpful but it is pointless if you don’t know how to use them, and it’s been plaguing our country for the past 3 decades.
You can find lots of beautiful things in our country, from scenery to architecture, to people.
In business, it is said that publicity is the soul of commerce. Until we regard tourism as a solid, profit-bringing business, capable of changing people’s lives for the good, we will remain a local gem, unknown to many…
Big corruption here, nothing to see. Move on.
The pretty buildings are quite few in most cities, you leave the small old town center and see the horrible communist architecture, parked sidewalks, unmaintained green spaces (where you have the luxury to find them), etc. Wee need better all-around maintenance, so it doesn’t ruin the beauty of the old towns and infrastructure is a huge problem.
You need to drive crazy hours to get from one place to another because of lack of highways and that’s probabbly a deal-breaker for most tourists.
Because people don’t know about it
Because we ooga booga, where țuică de pufoaică
Thanks for the appreciation, OP!
We are not good at promoting ourselves and whenever you have to rely on the authorities for anything, from infrastructure to investing in the tourism sector, it’s a disaster. I agree with you that the country has lots of potential. Especially in terms of landscapes and some of the mid-sized towns such as Sighisoara, Brasov, Oradea etc there is a lot we could showcase.
The answer is always the same. Wdgaf
It’s our fault, really. Every time someone mistakes Budapest for Bucharest, we correct them :p
This is the way.
The inhabitants, we are still on Homo Neanderthalis.
Do legalise.
corruption
We need highways to connect those cities to western countries, and they need to be ultra modern so they can be marketed to foreigners. We also need to adhere to Shengen to make it as easy as possible to visit Romania.
Lastly, after the infrastructure is set in place, we need to capitalize on local culture, cuisine and architecture.
Sadly, this would, realistically, only be achieavable to cities in Transilvania like Cluj, Timisoara, Brasov, Sibiu, Arad, Oradea as they already have a high standard of living compared to the rest of the country and lower crime rate because of that. They are also closer to the West resulting in shorter highwaysthat need to be built.
This being said, if these 6 cities see an exponential growth in tourism and economy, the money and infrastructure will slowly trickle down to the rest of the country.
Because we’re rEtArDeD!!!
Because services are shit and expensive. In that order.
1) We still don’t know how to market ourselves. We’ve only been a capitalist country for a bit over 30 years, so the ideas of marketing and investments are still not part of our culture and mindset.
2) Corruption, laziness and complacency are widespread in our culture. Most people, including goverment officials, like to do the bare minimum to get the most amount of money possible. That means no investments in culture or infrastructure.
Mate, architecture isn’t the only thing you need to attract tourists.
>Its cities have architecture to rival that of Prague and Budapest
I loled
Lack of maintenance….every great building if it’s not maintained….turns into a great ruin.
Also we are not that great to be honest. A couple of nice mountains and a little bit of seaside….maybe Delta Dunarii ? And that’s it.
Let me see! The lack of vision from the Marketing department of our Ministry of Tourism and even local businesses in general.
Subpar services compared to the asking price.
Besides the lack of road and highways we also have a lack or complete disregard of rail infrastructure.