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The spring edition of the Romanian Tourism Fair took place between February 15 and 18, at the Romexpo Exhibition Center in Bucharest. For four days, offers with exclusive discounts, all-inclusive packages and unmissable promotions were presented so that travel dreams can be turned into reality.
We stop first in Maramureș. The destination had a special stand, located in a 400 square meter tent, outside the exhibition space. Here we were met by Paul Habina, from the Destination Management Organization.
“It is the first stand that jumps out in front of the visitors of the tourism fair. I heard that some people even said that Maramureş made its own tourism fair, and it is not far from the truth, because this year we came with a lot of local craftsmen and producers, more than 12 in number. They are producers both on the gastronomic side, but also on the arts and crafts side. Considering that the hot season is coming, we decided to promote certain tourism operators who propose offers for the summer, but many hoteliers from Maramureș are also with us. Of course we want to promote everyone, but not everyone manages to physically get to Bucharest. That’s why we prepared a set of LED screens, one very large and four smaller ones, on which we promote all tourism operators who send us videos or images.”
Daniel Leș is one of the popular craftsmen from Maramures present at the fair. He tells everyone that he has been working with clay for 50 years, a clay that is fused with Romanian ancestors, and which, through the hand crafted objects, speaks about them.
” I think with great sanctity and responsibility when I inscribe in my vessels those signs that carry our history forward. There is a story that accompanies the vessel. People need stories. People need to be taken to a wonderful world. Maramureş is a mystery, and you can only discover and feel this mystery with your soul and heart. There are also women who still weave beautiful shirts with a loom. There are some marks embroidered on those shirts. That is our history. Stop, people, and really taste the tradition, and go back to order, to peace! Go to Maramureș, take off your shoes in the summer and feel the grass under your feet, because we still have grass with medicinal plants. We have traditional, organic food, and we have tradition. You don’t need much to be happy, you just need to see the happiness in the simple things.”
The stand for Mureș county certainly stood out this year. The main tourist destinations were framed, exhibited and illuminated just like in an art gallery. The concept was created by the art section of the Mureș County Museum, says Dana Matic, representative of the Visit Mureș Association and the tourist information office in Târgu Mureș.
“This year we set out to support and promote cultural tourism due to the fact that, since autumn, museums or galleries that have been under renovation for several years have begun to reopen. For example, the Museum of Natural Sciences reopened its doors after five years of renovation and rethinking of the permanent exhibition. The Palace of Culture reopens after 2 years of renovation, at the beginning of March. The cultural offer in the city of Târgu Mureș and in the county of Mureș is growing, and we felt that it would be an opportune time to promote this type of tourism. Since last year, we started a strategy to promote culture, because we considered that these are the strong points of the county. Last year we started with castles, we continue to promote castles, and this year we also promote museums, village museum houses, art galleries, and invite everyone to come and visit them.”
At the Tulcea county stand, we are greeted by Ștefan Marian Gheorghe, member of the Tulcea County Council.
“The stand was designed in such a way that we try to effectively convey the image of Tulcea county and the Delta, with everything we have: tradition, multiculturalism, gastronomy, traditional houses of the Lipovan. This year we focused on the forms of slow tourism, on those forms of tourism with rowing boats, without engines, with kayaks, with canoes. In total, we have 19 artistic moments during the four days of the fair. We tried to group them in such a way as to represent each minority of the county: Greeks, Lipovan Russians, Romanians, Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians, etc. Tulcea county has 14 minorities. We invited them all, and we are glad that they responded positively to our invitation, so there are days when we have seven moments, days when we have five, up to 19 in total, through which you will discover the folk costume, the music, the voices, the most beautiful things we have to present and show the whole world.”
A new offer comes from Bucovina, which invites us to hunt for truffles through Ioan Mihail Robu.
“Let me tell you how magic happens! It is very simple! I consider it a liberal profession and, at the same time, a hobby. Personally, I take it to the hobby side, that is, I have a relationship with my dogs, with whom I go to the forest. That’s where magic happens, because it’s about the bond between me and those dogs. We are at work, at the same time having fun and feeling good, because, after all, it is still a stroll outdoors. We developed a truffle festival precisely to make truffles more accessible to people, to break the myth that truffles are a luxury product that the common man cannot afford. At the Truffle Festival, anyone can afford to taste truffles. Trust me, the truffle, when you pull it out of the ground, smells divine. It doesn’t compare to the truffle you get in the store or in the restaurant. I encourage everyone, when they want to come and visit Bucovina, to go for a tour in the forest, a leisurely one-day walk.”
The Buzău stand presented a ‘walking laboratory’. The children could analyze pieces of amber, salt, or resin. On the other hand, at the stand of the National Salt Company, Salrom, the treatment bases in the salt mines in Romania were presented, and a circuit was proposed, called the “Salt Road”. The Banatul Montan came with active and rural tourism offers, and Alba Iulia invited us to the Palace of the Princes, the residence of the princes of Transylvania. We will discover these destinations in future editions of our feature.