Romania, a country without a country brand

The most important attempt ever to produce a country brand for Romania, the "Fabulospirit" project has been forgotten since a new leadership was promoted at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bucharest this spring.

The other project, “Romania, simply surprising" is dying after a short honeymoon. These projects are just two of the Romanian initiatives that have been focused on promoting Romania abroad as their ultimate goal.

After various tries, seminars and public debates, Romania still remains a country without a country brand, one of the few European countries which do no have a coherent plan to make their country known abroad.

“Romania, simply surprising” was designed by the Tourism Ministry in 2004. For its promotion, the government paid 52 billion Romanian RON. The campaign included videos broadcast on EuroNews, BBC and CNN.

The World Tourism Organization in a recent study criticized both the campaign and the slogan of the project and proposed that serious measures should be taken to enhance Romania's visibility abroad.

The second project, "Fabulospirit", was designed in December last year after the evaluation of Romania's perception among foreigners.

Since its birth, the project raised various scandals involving its financing and the agency that took over the concept, Gav Scholz&Friends.

In May this year, Romanian Foreign minister Adrian Cioroianu decreed its inapplicability and the importance of a sound project that would not hurt Romania's quasi-inexistent image abroad.

Currently, the Master Plan for Developing National Tourism 2007-2026, elaborated by the Ministry and the World Tourism Agency is to be approved after a thorough analysis by governmental representatives.

The Master Plan identified several directions to set up the brand strategy: tourism weekends in Bucharest, tourism circuits in Transylvania, Black Sea activities etc.

The project would be applied over the next 20 years and by 2016, it plans to attract 10 million tourists annually as compared to 6 million last year.

HotNews.ro, Jul 16, 2007