In this chapter there is a presentation of Bucovina as an attractive tourism region of Romania, more and more appreciated by native and foreign tourists, having characteristics which distinguish it from the other Romanian tourism regions, namely the monasteries pertaining to UNESCO heritage. Nevertheless, the tourism in Bucovina can be oriented in many directions: historical and religious tourism, sports tourism, balneary tourism, and recreational tourism. The multitude of tourism forms that can be practiced in Bucovina must become well known; the possible visitors need to know that they can practice other forms of tourism besides the religious one, and this is why it is necessary to create the tourism brand of Bucovina. The promotion program of the brand of Bucovina must consider two main objectives: the presentation of the tourist sites and the deliverance of a good service quality.
TopThe Tourism In Bucovina
In the north-eastern part of Romania, at the border with Ukraine, there stretches the Upper Land of Moldavia, the historical-geographic region of Suceava, also called Bucovina. The region occupies a significant place in the country’s economy, being the second as surface, with a population of approximately 700.000 inhabitants. Suceava is the capital of the county, situated at some important commercial crossroads, which connects Central and Northern Europe with the Black Sea.
Bucovina is one of the most important Romanian tourism brands. Filled with a rich and long Romanian tradition and having cultural foundations of international importance, Bucovina wants to come again into tourists’ attention as a purely ecological tourism region, as it was called by Mr. Peter Zimmer, an expert of the German company IBD/GTZ (Integrated service of consultancy for economics in Romania - the Society for Technical Cooperation), one of the initiators and promoters of the Bucovina Tourism Association. ..The multitude of tourism forms which can be practiced in Bucovina must become well-known, the possible visitors knowing the fact that they can practice also other forms of tourism beside the religious one, and this is why it is necessary to create the tourism brand of Bucovina. But, the tourism in Bucovina can be oriented towards many directions: historical and religious tourism, sports tourism, balneary tourism and recreational tourism.
Religious built heritage is a particular strength for Bucovina. Today's traveller is mainly interested in the tourist circuits, which includes the famous monasteries, Arbore, Humor, Moldovita, Sucevita, Suceava, Patrauti, Probota, and Voronet, with their painted frescoes on the exterior walls.
As a general approach of the reality, we consider that it is necessary to create a customized unitary offer of Bucovina. This must include adequate tourism programs, which should allow to tourists to remain 6 nights in the region. Such an offer should involve combined proposals, a diversity of hunting and fishing programs, hiking, horse rides, mountain-bike, sheep-fold visits, mountain-climbing, paragliding, etc. In order to make easier to conceive some unitary tourism programs for Bucovina, it is necessary to have an efficient communication between the representatives of the tourism agencies and the receiving structures (hotels, villas, bed and breakfast, etc.).
The value and the density of the historical monuments, such as churches (beginning with Volovat, Solca, Horodnic, Bogdana from Radauti) and monasteries (Putna, Voronet, Sucevita, Arbore, Moldovita, Humor, Slatina, Dragomirna, Sf. Ioan cel Nou, Risca, Rarau), some of them unique in the whole world, ranked and listed in the “Protected Universal Heritage” by UNESCO in 1972, situates the county - as often stated by authorized persons - on the first position in the country, in what the cultural and historical resources are concerned.
According to the Austrian art critic Josef Strzygowski (1913) ‘Above all that can be seen in Moldavia, there are the strange churches that, through the polychromy of their facades, can be compared to the San Marco Church in Venice, or the Dome in Orvieto’ (…). ‘Art and spiritual life of Bucovina would become one of the sights of Europe.’(…) ’There is no other country in the world to offer something like that.’
Regarding the natural tourism resources, Bucovina’s potential situates this region on the 10th position. As a consequence, Bucovina represents an attractive tourism region, of international concern, by its cultural, historical, secular and religious heritage, and based on its natural conditions, of great landscape value. The exceptional tourism potential of the region allows a pronounced development of the tourism, a sector which can be considered as a significant source of economic growth in the following years.
Bucovina, a province situated in the North-Eastern Romanian, is well-known for the beauty of its landscapes, for the wealth of its traditions and, especially, for its painted monasteries. These masterpieces of art of Byzantine influence are poofs of the glory of the Moldavian civilization during the XVth and the XVIth centuries. The value and the beauty of these “pearls” of Bucovina are known and recognized all over the world. The recognition of this reality is represented by the fact that the above mentioned monasteries are part of the UNESCO heritage.