New strategy to promote Bucharest will focus on nightlife and local culture

Newsroom 05/01/2015 | 14:43

Romania’s capital will have a new tourism brand in the future, which will rely heavily on the night life in Old Town, the city’s green spaces, the Palace of Parliament and its museums, according to Calin Ile, vice president for the Association of Bucharest Promotion.

“We can promote the cultural life, the Enescu Festival, the city’s architecture and history, its neighboring landmarks and many others. But everything must be put together by specialists, and this will happen soon” according to Ile, quoted by Mediafax.

The vicepresident believes that the biggest highlight for foreigners is the way that Bucharest lives and thrives, the friendliness and openness of Romanians. Foreigners that come to Bucharest for the first time generally live with a positive opinion.

“Our purpose is to generate that first visit and unfortunately, this is where we have to fight against certain ideas that foreginers have about Bucharest, that it is unsafe, filled with stray dogs, that you don’t have anything to do and where you can get robbed, with prostitution and filth everywhere. Here we can play a very important role, to show them that we have a city like any other in Europe, where both good and bad things happen but where it’s worth coming to because it is pleasant”, the official added.

The association was founded last year by nine founding members, representing tourism agencies, hotel owners, restaurants, the Chamber of Commerce, transporters, Tarom, City Hall and other involved parties. Every member supplied EUR 1,500 for the association’s budget with another RON 500,000 from City Hall. .

“In the future though, our main source of financing will be a city tax that we collect from tourists and pour into the local budget. Everywhere in the world, this tax represents 80 percent of tourism financing. We know we need to change the fiscal code to achieve this”, Ile explained.

According to INS data, 1,3 million people spent the night in a hotel or accomodation unit in Bucharest in 2013, and 600,000 of them were foreigners. 70 percent of foreigners visiting Bucharest do so in the interest of business and only 30 percent are tourists.

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