Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
20 Romania: National Identity,
Tourism Promotion and European
Integration
Duncan Light
Introduction
increased numbers of tourists to the country.
However, it is also underpinned by political
imperatives: the role of a National Tourist Office
is to project and affirm a particular identity for
the respective country. It is one means through
which that country can seek to present and legi-
timize itself to 'others'. The language and ima-
gery of state-sponsored tourist promotion is
underpinned by messages such as 'this is who
we are' and 'this is how we want you to see us '
(Light, 2001).
Nowhere is this relationship between tourism
promotion and the projection of national identity
more important than in the formerly socialist
countries of Central and Eastern Europe (Morgan
and Pritchard, 1998). During the socialist period
the use of tourism promotion to project an overtly
ideological message about the nature and achie-
vements of state socialism was a well-established
practice. Since 1989, as the countries of this
region have sought to redefine national identities,
their state-sponsored tourism promotion has been
equally ideological in nature. Although different
countries have adopted different strategies, a
common characteristic has been the requirement
to project an image of 'European-ness' that
demonstrates and legitimizes their claims as
aspirant members of the EU (Hall, 1999, 2002a,
2002b; Hughes and Allen, 2005).
This chapter considers the role of officially
sponsored tourism promotion, produced during
the mid- and late-1990s, in presenting a new
This chapter examines the role of tourism pro-
motion in Romania in presenting and affirming
a post-socialist identity as one component of the
country's protracted process of Euro-Atlantic
integration. At first sight tourism promotion may
seem unrelated to questions of identity, parti-
cularly given the long tendency to regard it as
essentially a marketing activity underpinned by
particular economic imperatives. However, in
recent years there has been increasing attention
within tourism studies to the political and ideolo-
gical dimensions of tourism promotion (Morgan
and Pritchard, 1998; Hall, 1999; Pritchard,
2000; Pritchard and Morgan, 2001; Ateljevic
and Doorne, 2002; Hall, 2002a). As Morgan and
Pritchard (1998, p. 148) argue:
decisions which shape tourism policy, the
extent and nature of government intervention
and the kind of tourism development which is
encouraged are political acts which result from
political processes . Equally, the images used in
the promotion of destinations are similarly
ideological.
The ideological dimension of tourism pro-
motion is most apparent in the officially spon-
sored promotion undertaken by National Tourist
Offices. The agenda of such promotion is, of
course, economic and is intended to contribute
to economic development through attracting
 
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