Elena Udrea is preparing a spa center and a "small leaf" for Bucharest

• Next year, Thomas Cook will begin once again bringing in German, Swiss and Austrian tourists to Romania

Elena Udrea is decided to put back Bucharest on the map for European tourists. A spa center and a revised logo are her first objectives, but it is obvious that the plans are far bigger. The Ministry of Regional Development and Tourism (MDRT) intends to obtain a partnership for the construction of a spa center in Bucharest, Elena Udrea announced: "There aren"t many cities that have spa capabilities like Bucharest does. We haven"t abandoned the project to build a spa center in the north of Bucharest. The problem is that the spa resource is owned by a private operator. We need a partnership with it to build a spa center in Bucharest. We will also talk to the Ministry of Health to exploit the Ana Aslan Center. For the moment, we are trying to attract investors, but since we don"t own the spa resource, the decision is not up to us. However, investors who invest more than 15 million Euros in tourism may request grants from the government". In the beginning of June 2011, the Ministry of Regional Development and Tourism signed the contract for the marketing plan (strategic and operational) for the city of Bucharest in the tourism sector, for the 2011-2015 period, with the consortium Detente Consultants SAS/Detente Consultants SRL, for an amount of 101,952 Euros including VAT. The promotion of the tourist brand is as good as done, with Elena Udrea jokingly announcing that she has already thought about a "smaller leaf". Next month, the MDRT will present the mayoralty of Bucharest with a marketing plan for Bucharest, which will present the main avenues of promotion." The mayoralty showed no interest in promoting Bucharest, so, based on its attributions, the Ministry initiated this marketing plan. We have requested the company an increase of at least 4.8% a year, an average increase in the number of nights spent by tourists of more than 6.8%. Following the application of the plan, the reputation of the Capital should increase by at least 15%, on three of the main travel markets", Udrea added. The research for the marketing plan performed by French company Detente Consultants proves that Bucharest should attract other types of tourists, aside from business travelers, such as visitors interested in cultural tourism, healthcare tourism, events and city-breaks. The marketing plan recommends positioning Bucharest as a destination for youngsters, that would be known for its liveliness, for the night life and for the attractions of its historical center. Tourists could also be presented with a circuit of the old forts which surround Bucharest. According to the minister, there are about 30 such objectives.

On the other hand, Minister Elena Udrea has earned a victory against Radu Mazăre concerning tourism on the Romanian seaside. The casino of Constanţa was transferred to the Ministry of Regional Development and Tourism through a meeting of the Local Council. Elena Udrea announced that its rehabilitation could be performed by the National Investment Company or using the European funds available to the mayoralty of Constanţa: "I am happy that we were given control of the Casino of Constanţa. We could perform its rehabilitation through the National Investment Company. Following our visit to Constanţa, we have also identified another possibility. We have decided to provide the possibility to rehabilitate the Casino using European funds. If they don"t spend the funds, by September we will take them back. If he comes with a project, we will support it, if he doesn"t, we will begin the procedures and we will rehabilitate it using the funds of the Ministry of Tourism. Later, it will be returned under the management of the Mayoralty of Constanţa to have it introduced in the tourism circuit".

Aside from the internal projects, there are good news from abroad, as one of the largest travel companies in the world, Thomas Cook, will once again start sending German, Swiss and Austrian tourists to Romania, after withdrawing from the Romanian market in 2006. "The German subsidiary of the British group Thomas Cook AG, will be offering, via the Neckermann brand, trips to the Romanian seaside and to various Romanian cities", Udrea said. Together with Neckermann, the largest German tour operators, TUI, REWE Touristik and FTI have placed Romania among the destinations available in their catalogs.Thomas Cook Group operates on 21 markets, has 22 million customers and had a turnover of 9.3 billion GBP in the 2009-2010 fiscal year. The group owns about 100 planes, has 31,000 employees and aside from Europe, is also active in Asia, Egypt and Canada.