Mayor of Arefu commune, the only one to realise how much money a Dracula Fest can bring
Media institutions with big international impact such as CNN, Huffington Post or The Guardian have written about Romania and Dracula this past weekend, but the government has not yet realised how much money Romania could make if it were promoted as a tourist destination around this special time for the Western world, Halloween.
The only one who realised what a Dracula Fest can mean is the
mayor of Arefu commune in Argeş county (where the Poienari castle
of Vlad Ţepeş - Vlad the Impaler - is located), who organises a
Dracula Fest festival, but... in August, with no help from the
state. An airline, Carpatair and the pubs in downtown Bucharest,
too, thought of preparing special offers for foreign tourists at
this time of the year.
Based on more or less fictional facts, the Dracula brand has become
"stuck" to Romania, with journalists around the world remembering
Romania mostly around the time of Halloween. But to no avail.
Instead of relying heavily on this internationally assimilated
brand, officials of the Ministry of Tourism and of Regional
Development say Romania's promotion abroad does not include "using
Dracula's legend," because brand research revealed that "the most
competitive travel products" are cultural tours, rural tourism,
active tourism, balneal tourism, and city breaks.