Sibiu and beyond!
- Posted by Steve on January 16th, 2007 filed in Tourism and travel
Opportunity: taking profit from Sibiu’s privileged position in 2007
Having been named one of Europe’s “Cultural Capitals†for 2007, it is Sibiu’s (and Romania’s) time to shine. Many curious travelers– including those of German descent looking for “Hermannstadt”, retired Roman soldiers, and elderly Dacians – will visit the renovated city to view the architecture and surroundings.
Building off of Sara and Cristian’s posts on traditional restaurants… This is an excellent opportunity to give the tourists exactly what they want. Take them back to the early days of various time periods – before “Marlboro†was plastered on everything or the omnipresent Coca Cola promotional umbrellas. I mean REALLY take them back by designing restaurants to be a complete time warp of an experience in a different era.
Once, while visiting Colonial Williamsburg - a Virginia historical park of restored buildings and homes and persons, in period costumes, reenacting daily life from pre-revolutionary America - my wife and I dined at a restaurant that was 18th century down to (almost) the last detail. The food, silverware, plates, cups, low ceilings, costumed waitstaff, and candle lit lamps showed you what it was like back then. The only problem was they had the computers where the waiters would input the food orders in full view and… the frequently ringing phone had a loud electronic ring that brought you back to the current time period (surely these are easy things to fix/hide!). Still… we remember it as one of my best restaurant experiences of our lives.
The effort and dedication required to achieve authenticity is well worth the effort. These are the dining establishments that get promoted in the tourist guidebooks and by the all important “word of mouth†advertising and, nowadays… blogging about it.
Given the natural beauty of Sibiu and other towns such a as Brasov (Kronstadt) and Sighisoara, a governmental effort to coordinate whole towns into going beyond building preservation and designing more comprehensive tourist strategies to ensure the right ambiance is an excellent way to ensure Romania sees its tourism opportunities increase.
Besides restaurants…could other businesses benefit from this?
Written by Steve
January 16th, 2007 at 6:42 pm
If in all of the cities you mentioned would be built such restaurants, then the travel agencies could create tours to visit the sites and to have a meal in a medieval atmosphere.
January 16th, 2007 at 11:27 pm
I love it! Much better idea than “Dracula Land”.
January 17th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
I just love the idea of the restaurant! I’m just wondering if the marketing efforts for promoting one of the Cultural Capitals will be effective enough to bring the half a million foreign tourists the authorities expect. I read in an article in Capital’s “Lumea in 2007″ that the travel agencies are not that optimistic, as Eurolines, for example, hasn’t recieved any foreign enquiries for Cultural Sibiu packages, although they have 7 agencies in Germany…
January 17th, 2007 at 4:24 pm
I think quite a lot will be ‘informal tourism’, as in Romanians living abroad informing their friends.
January 18th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
It’s a very good idea, but I think it’s hard to find silverware, plates, cups in this time to be authentical,maybe the costums and the food are easier to find.I look forward to dine in such a restaurant.
March 29th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
[...] I thought I had finally found a good example of a restaurant that really takes you back in history as I had wished for in a previous post.  This one I found was called Camelot in Timisoara.  Their waiters were dressed in period clothing.  The atmosphere was definitely historic with big wood tables and large trays of food.  Even their website loaded at medieval speeds. [...]