Yes, this is what the stand looks like in the opening photo of this article. The image and accompanying text can be found on the official page of the Consulate General of Romania in New York.
“ On March 19 and 20, 2022, the International Tourism Fair The Travel & Adventure Show took place in New York, where Romania had a stand to present and promote local tourism products. The event was the long-awaited space for specialists in the field to disseminate exclusive information, travel offers and tourist programs that cannot be found in such a presentation anywhere else. The representatives of our country benefited, throughout the event, from the support and logistical support of the leadership of the Consulate General of Romania in New York and the team of the Commercial and Economic Promotion Office. ”
"The year of God 2022, 65 million years since the Cretaceous period. Romania is represented by pictures pasted on the curtain. Fantastic"
Initially, I thought it was a gathering at a village meeting in Kansas, but I'm documenting more and looking for the official page of the event in New York. See and believe it or not! Romania presented itself with a curtain of pictures at one of the largest tourism fairs in the United States of America . Don't believe me, press the PLAY button!
On the official event page I did not find a price for participants, but I think it is not cheap at all. And also on the official page of the Travel & Adventure Show I find a crucial piece of information. The location and the presentation method are extremely important to gain visibility, but also to increase ROI (Return on Investment).
I'm sure that the curtain with pictures from the Consulate General of Romania in New York attracted the most attention, and tens of thousands of American tourists were impressed by the pictures attached to the curtain pins. Comments are pouring in on the Consulate's official page, most of them ironic. I'll leave you with just a few!
"The year of God 2022, 65 million years since the Cretaceous period. Romania is represented by pictures pasted on the curtain. Fantastic"
"When you see what and who our taxes are going to, you get the horror and the desire to emigrate"
"You'd better make some polenta sandwiches if you wanted to make fun of the visitors. To the libertines!"
In the last two years, Romania had the biggest drop in incoming tourism in the European Union, being almost zero in 2020
The announcement was made by Dumitru Luca, president of the National Association of Travel Agencies. “Romania had the largest decrease in incoming tourism in the European Union. In 2020, the decrease was 94%, meaning we had almost zero incoming tourism ,” Dumitru Luca said in a press conference about the incoming market. He claims that the most unfortunate measure taken by the authorities during the pandemic was the blocking of the activity of treatment centers, spa resorts, that is, “the most important resource that God gave us”, and employees were sent into unemployment. " Instead of using this resource, because then we needed it more than ever for the post-Covid recovery, we considered it better to keep them locked up and send people into unemployment, and most of them left for other fields. And as we anticipated then, as activity resumes, we have no one to resume it with. There is an acute shortage of labor in tourism, in the hospitality industry, a shortage that we currently have nowhere to cover, since those who left either went abroad in the same field, or went to other fields where they have more security of tomorrow. Now the only possibility would be imported labor, but here too we are faced with the very cumbersome procedure for granting work visas for foreigners. It takes between 6 and 8 months, which is unacceptable given the conditions in which in winter we prepare for the summer season", Dumitru Luca said.
Another issue raised by the head of ANAT is obtaining a tourist visa for Romania, which is often more difficult to obtain than a Schengen visa. "A tourist visa for Romania is much more difficult to obtain than a Schengen visa - bureaucracy, travel, sometimes we don't have a consul, sometimes we don't have a program, sometimes there's no one to write to - it puts people on the road and discourages them. Those who had plans, but were not determined to come to Romania, often choose other destinations, or if they really want to come to Romania, they apply for a Schengen visa which, fortunately, allows them to come to Romania as well. All admiration for the few colleagues who still have the courage to do incoming in Romania", the president of ANAT also said.
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