Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Romania's
rural
traditions
is
stressed.
For
aspirations by contributing to Balkanist ways of
seeing the country as marginal and under-
developed. That said, the rural lifestyles that
Romania is so vigorously promoting are
themselves likely to change substantially as a
result of the agricultural restructuring which will
inevitably follow EU accession.
Romania's motives for placing so much
emphasis on its rural heritage are both prag-
matic and ideological. On one hand, while
there are many other European destinations
offering beach and skiing tourism, the rural is
one of Romania's unique attributes as a desti-
nation. Rural tourism enables Romania to pro-
ject itself as the 'exotic' and 'authentic' within
Europe, by projecting the pastoral idyll to
Western tourists seeking rural traditions and
lifestyles that no longer exist in their own coun-
tries (Morgan and Pritchard, 1998). In a more
down to earth sense, rural tourism enables
Romania to play to its strengths without expos-
ing the weaknesses of the tourist infrastructure
inherited from the socialist period (Roberts,
1996). At a time when the state showed little
concern for tourism (so that Black Sea,
mountain and spa resorts remained in state
ownership and experienced prolonged under-
investment), the development of rural tourism has
been led by the private sector, and coordinated
and regulated by various non-governmental
organizations.
However, there are also ideological rea-
sons for promoting rural tourism. Within
Romania the rural environment is an important
symbol of identity and there is a long history
(generally, although not exclusively, among
more nationalist commentators) of idealizing
the Romanian peasant and rural life more
generally. As such, the prominence given to the
rural within tourist promotion reflects its import-
ance for national identity (although Western
tourists may not necessarily recognize this).
However, there is also a specifically post-
socialist dimension: the importance attached to
rural lifestyles is a means of asserting and pro-
moting values and traditions which pre-date
Communist Party rule and which have survived
(relatively unscathed) Ceau
s
escu's attempts to
bring about a radical restructuring of the rural
environment. Giving priority to the rural - and
more generally presenting Romania as a
new country with old traditions (Morgan and
example:
You can watch folk festivals in Transylvania
that are genuine expressions of local culture,
not merely staged for visitors. . .One of many
extraordinary aspects of this country is its
vibrant rural culture, which for decades the
outside world heard little about. . . Wherever
you go in Transylvania you will discover rural
traditions that are a real part of everyday
life . . . Few other parts of Europe have
preserved so distinctive a rural culture.
(Ministry of Tourism, undated a,
pp. 3, 15)
A similar emphasis is apparent in the
images used in promotional materials. As
Table 20.1 indicates, almost 20% of brochure
images feature rural traditions and lifestyles,
with people in traditional costumes being the
largest sub-category (10.1% of all images).
This focus on rural heritage is not something
particular to the post-socialist period: the pro-
motion of rural tourism (particularly for domes-
tic tourists) was a characteristic of the socialist
era throughout Central and Eastern Europe
(Hall, 1998). Neither is the priority cur-
rently accorded to rural traditions unique to
Romania, since most of the formerly socialist
countries of this region have stressed similar
themes, with their promotional materials mak-
ing prominent references to people dressed in
traditional costumes (Morgan and Pritchard,
1998).
On one hand, the prominence given to
rural heritage and traditions in Romania's
officially-sponsored tourist imagery appears
paradoxical given the country's concern to
present itself as a new, invigorated and
forward-looking country with ambitions for EU
accession. The focus on the rural (and particu-
larly lifestyles which have largely disappeared
from much of Western Europe) highlights the
ways in which Romania is 'different' and (in
rural areas at least) less developed than the
West. In effect, Romania is presenting itself as a
pre-modern 'other'. This is certainly not
unique to Romania: through an emphasis on
the rural many other peripheral areas of
Europe similarly construct themselves in this
way (O'Connor, 1993). However, in the case
of Romania the strategy to highlight the
pre-modern rural potentially undermines EU
