ERDF PP7 NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN TOURISM, ROMANIA The National Institute for Research and Development in Tourism (NIRDT) was created in 1971, currently operating as an institution coordinated by the Ministry of National Education. The NIRDT’s main activity is fundamental and applied research, of public and national interest, that concerns the development and promotion of Romanian tourism. The NIRDT competencies with specific added value to SAGITTARIUS include the evaluation of tourism potential of the territory, strategies and policies for tourism and marketing of destinations. The theme of the Romanian Pilot Project is “Bucharest – City between Orient and Occident”. Bucharest was officially recognized in 1459, 6 years after the Fall of Constantinople. The city evolved along with the extension of the Ottoman Empire in Europe and grew upon this cultural rift, at the border between Orient and Occident. This theme has been chosen mainly for this reason. For the Romanian Pilot Project, 23 assets have been selected, being related with the theme: 12 in Bucharest, 10 in the Bucharest surroundings and the Peles Castle in Sinaia. NIRDT is responsible for 10 assets located in the surroundings of Bucharest city. Inside the Pilot Project, we have proposed: • To identify the assets of Bucharest surroundings on the Sagittarius Trail; • To identify the main themes and stories related to the assets from the trail; • To create the deliverables for this trail (panels for exhibition, texts for mobile application, QR codes, social media participatory space, game). Objectives: • Improving the consumers’ knowledge concerning the cultural-historic evolution of the analysed area; • Identifying the capitalising potential of the objectives inside this trail; • Improving the cultural experience during the visits to the trail attractions; • Identifying solutions for improving the interpretation for the selected assets. The Pilot Project idea emerged during the discussions at: • the seminar and round table organised on 9.12.2011
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by ERDFPP7 (NIRDT) and ERDFPP8 (IEN), with the collaboration of the Ministry of Regional Development and Tourism (MDRT), strategic partner in the Sagittarius Project. The event was attended by 51 actors from local and national public authorities, the private sector, the cultural operators, NGOs, professional associations, academic units; the local consulting meeting of 31.05.2013, organised by NIRDT and MDRT. 18 people from 12 institutions participated in this meeting; the working visit of the NIRDT team in the Bucharest surroundings (7.06.2012); the working meeting which took place on 18.01.2013 at the IEN headquarters, which was attended by representatives of the three Romanian partners involved in the project; the working meeting which took place on 26.02.2013 at the NIRDT headquarters attended by the representatives of the three Romanian partners involved in the Sagittarius project, as well as the e-course participants. We also benefited from Mrs. Irina OberländerTârnoveanu’s expertise (historian, Heritage consultant) during the selection process of the Pilot Project theme and the objectives of the itinerary.
Inside the itinerary created by NIRDT in the surroundings of the city we have chosen: • 6 monasteries, symbolic buildings of Orthodox-Christianity, of which 4 also had the role to protect the city. Due to the interdiction to build civil fortifications, a series of monasteries, built in hardly accessible areas, outside the city, with thick defence walls, became the strategic system of the settlement, but also places where local beliefs and culture were kept in spite of the strong external pressure. • 2 princely palaces. In this area a series of personalities of the country’s elite have built private properties, some of them being representative of the evolution of architecture in these places, buildings that combine western and eastern architecture elements. • 2 recreational areas. These were the locations of
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