The Count Dracula Club restaurant in downtown Bucharest
was doing a brisk trade.
As I tucked into my Evil Salad, a pale-looking man in a black
cape was running through a kitsch vampire floorshow, which
culminated in a spot of crowd-participation neck-biting. The
legions of Eurogoths loved every second.
The Dracula myth is proving to be a big draw for Romania’s
fledgling tourism industry, 15 years after Romania emerged from the
dark days of dictator Ceausescu’s regime.
But if Romania is to finally graduate from its communist
hangover to become a top tourist destination, the former pariah
state of the Eastern Bloc needs more than a man with plastic fangs
to lead the tourism revolution.
Slowly, things are changing behind the corridors of power at
Romania’s Ministry of Tourism. Plans to build a Dracula Land
theme park near the UNESCO-listed town of Sighisoara were shelved
on environmental grounds, following the personal intervention of
Prince Charles.
Prime minister Adrian Nastase recently talked of making Romania
a “niche destination”, perhaps finally acknowledging the
groundswell of small operators championing more sustainable
projects over mass-market, get-rich-quick schemes on the Black Sea
coast.
Transylvania Uncovered manager Mike Morton said: “Tourism
officials need to recognise the main potential for developing
tourism in Romania is rural tourism. There are places, especially
in the north of the country, which have remained untouched for more
than 60 years and would appeal to tourists in search of culture and
the great outdoors.
“Scheduled carriers are increasing capacity to Timisoara and
Cluj and new hotel developments have sprung up in Bucharest and
Timisoara, but the focus is on business travellers and not
tourists.
“European Union membership would help to encourage
holidaymakers, but that’s a few years off. The tourist
literature also needs to be drastically updated. Romania is 20
years behind the times with its marketing materials,” he added.
On the ground, things are also slow to change. Bucharest’s
Paris of the East tag is reflected in the bustling street
cafés around Piata Universitatii, but levels of service
– such as those in the new Hotel Johnson Grand Plaza Hotel
off Plaza Romana – still hint at the days of state-run
agencies.
Many operators prefer to transfer straight out of Bucharest but
the city still offers plenty to fill a short-break itinerary. Top
of the list of attractions is the imposing Palace of Parliament,
the ultimate symbol of Ceausescu’s greed and the
second-largest building in the world after the Pentagon.
From Bucharest, a three-hour train journey in comfortable
first-class cabins takes me north through the Romanian countryside
to Brasov main station. Here, a driver is waiting to whisk me
through villages which are seemingly untouched by the modern age,
to one of Count Kalnoky’s guesthouses in the tiny village of
Miclosoara, 30 miles northeast of Brasov in the Szekely region of
Transylvania.
A family of bona fide Transylvanian counts, the Kalnoky family
were exiled from Transylvania in 1939 with the rise of fascism.
After the fall of communism 50 years later, Tibor Kalnoky, the
current count, returned to Transylvania to set about the huge task
of restoring the two family properties to their former glory.
Today, the revenues from his guesthouse and hunting lodge
– from organic home cooking to excursions by horse and cart
to nearby rustic villages – are helping to pay for the
restoration of the family hunting lodge. Catch the count after one
post-prandial plum brandy too many and he may even give you a
personal guided tour of his establishment.
After out-of-time Transylvania, the unspoilt villages of
Maramures, further north on the border with the Ukraine, definitely
feel like the land that time forgot. Based in the tranquil village
of Botiza and housed with a local family at their
farmstead-cum-bed-and-breakfast, the days drift by, accompanied by
stunning views of rolling farmland, sunset walks through the
village and some fine farm produce. During slap-up meals, the
mother of the household thrashes me in the plum brandy drinking
stakes.
Until Romania convinces the EU its days of corruption and
political profiteering are over, the country looks set to lurk in
the shadows of Eastern Europe’s tourism boom, an envious
spectator of the influx of no-frills airlines and the accompanying
explosion in visitor numbers that neighbouring Hungary currently
enjoys.
But, at grass-roots level, the groundswell is gathering pace.
“Places such as Transylvania and Maramures do not lend themselves
to coach parties,” said Ramona Cazacu, who runs the Romanian
tourism website myromania.go.ro.
“Rural Romania’s selling point is its traditional village
life, the likes of which can no longer be found anywhere else in
Europe.
“One day,” she smiled, “our time will come.”
