Rural Tourism Is a Gold Mine

The customs maintained in the rural environment, the popular art, the folklore, the skills transmitted from one generation to another, but also the special natural surroundings, are just some of Romania’s trumps for the foreseen rural tourism development.

The Romanian rural tourism and the one in the Central and Eastern Europe is highly to develop, since there is an increasing demand for the ecological tourism, for this kind of spending the free time in the countries in Western and Northern Europe, stated Francesco Frangialli, the general secretary of the World’s Tourism Organization (WTO).

He took part in the international seminary "the Rural Tourism and the Ecosystem in Europe - Potential and Perspectives", between the 8th and the 9th of October in Moeciu, in the Brasov county. The conference is organized by The ministry of Transports, Constructions and Tourism, the National Association for Rural, Ecological and Cultural Tourism, under the aegis of WTO.

OPPORTUNITIES. Lately, tourists’ interest moved towards the well-known destinations - France, Italy, Spain. In the Eastern Europe, in Romania and Bulgaria, some real "booms" of the tourism have been recorded, especially due to rural tourism and to healthcare spas, added Francesco Frangialli.

"Since Romania’s adherence to the EU in 2007 is a certain fact, we have to take advantage of this opportunity and open the possibility of knowledge and know-how transfer from Western Europe to this region", stated the WTO representative.

CONDITIONS. In order to attract a large number of tourists in the rural parts there is a need for easier access ways to the mountain regions, which means the development of the infrastructure, of the roads and of the means of transportation, also said Frangialli.

The ones who choose rural tourism must spend their time doing things they like, like riding a bike, river rafting, trips and other amusement activities. The ones promoting rural tourism must take care of these aspects as well. The tourist don’t want to just watch the cows grassing, they want to get involved in the village activities", said the general secretary of WTO.

GOOD HOUSING. We need to reach a certain critical mass, in what concerns the lodgments, in good conditions", believes Francesco Frangialli. This kind of rural network with more than 3000 lodgments has already appeared in Romania. "The tourist is traveling al by himself, he is very interested in the costs and prefers staying in local people’s homes" stated, in his turn, Luigi Cabrini, Europe’s WTO representative. He said that the rural tourism is dealing with a two times faster evolution than the tourism at international level, and the tendency of creating touristy networks to take care of the promotion and marketing on their own appeared.

INCREASE

The year 2004 has been a period with a significant increase in the touristy segment, stated the president of the National Authority for Tourism, Nicu Radulescu. This year, increases of 12% for the internal tourism and 40% for the foreign tourists have been recorded. There were approximately 400 new agricultural-touristy boards built this year.