And that one is from Romania…
- Posted by Magda on January 11th, 2007 filed in Retail, Tourism and travel
Opportunity: Romanian specific souvenirs for tourists
I have traveled a lot in my life, all around the world, for business and pleasure. My house is filled with souvenirs I bought from each place, something that would be representative for my experience there or for the place itself. Let alone all the albums and postcards and frames I bought at museums.
Ever since I came back to Romania, I decided to do some of those “touristy†things which I wasn’t doing before, so I visited museums and other local attractions. During one of these visits I decided it was a great opportunity to buy some Romanian representative gifts for my American friends for when I go back home. That’s all nice and dandy, but where to buy it from? Each museum I went to had a pathetic gift shop, with low (and I mean low) quality postcards, a few albums and that’s about it. I remember how huge the store at the Vatican Museum was, with exorbitant prices, or how charming the shop of the Guell Park of Gaudi in Barcelona was (with shelves full of little house decorations, calendars, mugs, statues, miniatures, ashtrays, salt and pepper sets), you did not know what to choose. Not to talk about the multitude of souvenirs shops on Broadway in New York and in every other American city.
I can not help but wonder, do Romanians lack imagination for creating all these, do they lack the business spirit, or are they so blind they can not see all the beauty that surrounds them? Probably, one day soon, a foreigner would come and exploit this opportunity.
Written by Magda
January 11th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
Romanians have unique handycraft objects and if they can’t realize the business potential they have, I agree on the fact that “an outsider” should do something about it. Besides, it would increase the awareness on Romania in a positive way
January 11th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
Good point with the museums’ gift shops. I recently went to the Antipa Museum and was unpleasantly surprised by the lack of quality of their postcards - as if they were still in the communist era … It’s such a pity… However, what I liked was the fact that we could buy stones and various minerals (i don’t know if that was a permanent shop or just temporary)
January 11th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
I’m surprised to see that Romanian authorities missed this, they have great plans for raising Romania’s awareness and they invest in all kinds of commercials. Boy, over there at the top a lot of details sure get lost….
January 12th, 2007 at 7:09 pm
Actually, there is one place where I saw more souvenirs, at Bran Castle. There is a big market of arts and crafts just in front of the entrance to the castle, which is organized by locals and the sellection is pretty limited.
July 17th, 2007 at 7:01 pm
[...] We had posted earlier about the opportunity in offering high-quality souvenirs for tourists. Alexandra, one of my students at ASE wrote a summary of her business plan in this area and decided to share it with us. While it will take a lot of work for her to define and implement this plan, I look forward to purchasing souvenirs from her shop when she opens it! The purpose of my business plan is to open a handicraft shop in Sibiu, a city full of culture and traditions, and also the cultural capital of Europe. While we have many beautiful places in our country, they are poor developed, and in Sibiu there are no strong competitors. We rely on a target market of foreigners and local tourists. Our goal is to form a strong brand, to develop our business in other cultural parts of our country, to encourage the tourism.We will offer hand-made products, not only from the Sibiu area, but also from Banat, Bucovina etc. Our salespeople will create an authentic experience by wearing traditional clothing and explaining with precision the main characteristics of the products. We will make sure our people are fully trained. Our website will feature detailed information about our products. [...]