Tourism :'Attractive Romania' platform expected to increase number of foreign tourists by 20pct

The 'Attractive Romania' programme is an important step the country is taking to reactivate lesser-known but relevant cultural objectives for national and European history and culture, Razvan Popescu, undersecretary of state with the Ministry of European Investment and Projects (MIPE), said."The 'Attractive Romania' programme is a step forward towards rediscovering and enhancing our history and culture from a tourism perspective. We have an extraordinarily beautiful country, a country where cultural tourism must be promoted. We have a country where a story is told at every step (...) We estimate a 20% increase of foreign tourists in Romania, compared to 2023, when 2 million foreign tourists were registered. (...) By targeting foreign tourists as well, the app will be translated into international languages. Of course we ourselves have to discover as well, because we have such a wonderful country with special values. We are addressing both the Romanian tourist public and the foreign public," said Popescu, at the launch of the "Attractive Romania" multimedia platform to promote cultural tourism.He pointed out that this programme to promote cultural tourism, "Attractive Romania," is worth about 8 million euros.Popescu said that the road signs will be ready by the end of this year, and more than 8,000 points will be signposted in the territory.The dignitary also voiced his joy to be part of the team "that manages the first Romanian cultural tourism programme that has obtained funding under the PNRR and that has the mission, together with other public, private or civil society units, to start building this tourism niche.Thus, as of Wednesday, May 15, Romanian and foreign tourists can discover new travel destinations in the country, with the help of the most complex local multimedia platform of this type, "Attractive Romania."Romania's cultural tourism programme includes 12 thematic routes that cross the entire country, with 275 sights to visit, presented in a dedicated multimedia platform and which, by 2026, will be signposted including by specific road infrastructure.According to the ministry, through the 'Attractive Romania' multimedia platform, the information reaches the user online through the website www.romania-atractiva.ro and through the mobile travel application, available free of charge for both iOS and Android smartphones.A digital library, available in several international languages, has also been developed for the first time for the programme, presenting the history of each cultural site.The initial mapping and content development of the 275 tourist attractions, carried out between 2023 and 2024 and integrated into the multimedia platform, will be completed in the next stage of the programme by the installation of the road signal infrastructure for each of the 12 cultural tourist routes."Attractive Romania," the first national programme to support cultural-historical tourism, started in 2023 and will end in June 2026.