The Romanian Tourism Branding Council had a first meeting on February 16

The first reunion of the Council for coordinating the project Romania’s Tourism Brand was held on February 16 at the headquarters of the Ministry of Regional Development and Tourism. Elena Udrea, Minister of Tourism and Eulogio Bordas, President of the partnership Asesores en Turismo, Hoteleria y Recreacion SA - Taylor Nelson Sofres SA,  THR-TNS, attended the meeting.

The Council, including representatives of the public administration, of tourism industry, important members of civil society, as well as experts in tourism, among them, Lucia Morariu – former State Secretary for Tourism and owner of Eximtur travel agency, Corina Martin – ANAT President, George Copos – Ana Hotels owner and Radu Enache – owner of Continental hotel chain, was set up to involve the main stakeholders in creating the new national tourism brand.

The meeting focused on presenting the whole project, detailing the objectives, the methodology and the planning of activities.

The project is in the first phase, that of carrying out studies to set up the current image of Romania as tourism destination.

The qualitative research campaign was performed up to 90% on the source markets and in Romania. The campaign implies interviewing tourism operators and opinion leaders.

Next week, THR&TNS consortium will start the quantitative research to determine the image of Romania in several target countries, such as Russia, France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Great Britain and USA in order to attract tourists. This phase implies carrying out over 10,000 phone interviews, stated Eulogio Bordas, team leader of THR-TNS.

Following the research results, the project team will determine the general and specific competitive advantages of several tourism products of Romania, compared to other competitor destinations and will elaborate the positioning strategy of Romania as tourism destination on the international market.

During the next phases, the partnership THR-TNS will design the visual identity of the tourism brand and will elaborate the brand’s strategy, as well as the strategy and communication manual. 

The contractual deadline is scheduled within six months. During this period, the project team will closely collaborate with the project managers from the Ministry of Regional Development and Tourism, MDRT, also involving the main stakeholeders in tourism industry in Romania and abroad. 

The amount to be paid by the ministry for the services provided is EUR 894,970, financed by European funds allocated to Romania, through the Regional Operational Program – Major Axis 5.3: “Promoting the tourism potential, creating infrastructure to increase the attractiveness of Romania as tourism destination”.

Over 180 persons will take part in the project of developing the tourism brand of Romania.

Sursa: Bloom Biz [16.02.2010], Business Magazin [16.02.2010], Capital [16.02.2010], Daily Business [16.02.2010], Financiarul [17.02.2010], Gandul [16.02.2010], InfoNews [17.02.2010], Jurnalul National [16.02.2010], Ministerul Dezvoltarii Regionale si Turismului [16.02.2010], Mediafax [16.02.2010], Ziarul Financiar [16.02.2010]