"Rediscovering Maramures" - a unique tourism project

Maramureş is one of the favorite destinations of tourists in Romania, especially during the winter and Easter holidays. Mocăniţa on the Vaser Valley, the Merry Cemetery in Săpânţa, the Bârsana Monastery and the Memorial to the Victims of Communism and the Resistance located in the town of Sighetul Marmaţiei, are tourist attractions known both nationally and internationally. But Maramures, with its four countries (lands) - Voivodal Maramures, Ţara Oaşului, Ţara Chioarului and Ţara Lăpuşului - has many tourist attractions that are still unknown to many Romanian and foreign citizens.

Therefore, in order to highlight these tourist attractions, the National Association of Travel Agencies (ANAT), in partnership with the Maramureş County Council, launched the "Rediscovering Maramureş" program, designed to present to the public the specifics of each of the four Maramureş regions, the main attractions and to inspire people with the desire to visit these places that still manage to preserve the traditional imprint of the Romanian village. And the first to benefit from this project were the media representatives and travel agencies from our country, on the occasion of the infotrip that took place last week.

"Maramureş is one of the most valuable tourist destinations in Romania, and this strategic partnership with the County Council is an example of good practices in promoting Romanian tourism. Through this infotrip, we want to contribute to creating a strong tourist brand for the region and generate a positive economic impact for local communities", declared Alin Burcea, president of ANAT.

"We took this step because, throughout our professional activity, we really wanted Maramures to sell itself, to become a marketable destination both in the domestic and international markets. We discovered that it is difficult to sell Maramures, because we do not know it well enough. Our colleagues from tourism agencies in the country and abroad can help us sell Maramures, that is, to bring tourists to this area of the country. And for the realization of this project, we received the support of the Maramures County Council. And we thought, together with our tourism professional colleagues, of a beautiful program that had everything: from culture to traditions, to landscapes, to local gastronomy", Diana Iluţ, vice president of ANAT, told us, on the occasion of a press conference that was organized in the municipality of Baia Mare, as part of the infotrip.

In turn, Gabriel-Valer Zetea, president of the Maramureş County Council, told us: "We have recently discovered that our pragmatic visions regarding the promotion and approach to selling the Maramureş tourist product coincide with those of ANAT. Therefore, we gladly accepted ANAT's proposal regarding the organization of this project and we chose to try to show where the tourist product is actually sold, what is new about Maramureş, what Romanian and foreign tourists who choose to come here can discover. We must find possibilities for Romanian and foreign tourists to come and see these beautiful lands that God created and that we keep alive through the prism of traditions, of things inherited from our estates and ancestors. That is precisely why the project of pragmatic promotion of Maramureş is welcome and I understand the role that falls to local authorities. I hope that by promoting the Maramureş tourist product and by increasing the number of Romanian and foreign tourists, Maramures residents should develop their businesses, return home and open a tourism business, because they will earn better and have enough to support their families. This is how tourism should be seen: as a profitable industry. That is why we need to create this image, and the public investments made by the Government in Borşa are a positive example of how tourism has managed to bring an entire valley back to life, has managed to provide confidence to private investors who have opened new accommodation units and have offered employees more consistent incomes".

• Borşa - massive investments in the ski sector

The Borşa tourist resort is the main attraction for winter sports lovers offered by Maramures County in the cold season, especially in recent years, after the local administration, with the support of the Government, invested heavily in the Olympic ski slope, for which it also built a gondola, which is the only one in the country that has an intermediate station.

Ion Sorin Timiş, the mayor of Borşa resort, told us: "In 2016, together with colleagues from the city hall, we started an investment plan in the city of Borşa, of 100 million euros, for 10 years. Next year, the investments we proposed 10 years ago will be completed and we are starting another investment for the city, mostly in the tourism sector. The Borşa gondola is an installation manufactured in Austria by the Dopplemayr company. There are 56 gondolas, each with eight seats, with a transport capacity of 1,800 people per hour. In the four ski seasons, the longest queue at the gondola was 10 minutes. For those of you who have been to Poiana Braşov, between 10 minutes and two hours is a big, big difference. The total investment here cost 37 million euros, meaning expropriations, the electricity line, the parking lot, the arrangement of the ski slope with all the equipment and the night-time system and the gondola. All investments are made with funds from the Romanian Government, through the Tourism Master Plan, and with co-financing from the local budget. We received funding from the state budget, because in the current multiannual European budget exercise 2021-2027, Romania does not receive European funds for investments in ski slopes and cable car facilities".

The investment in the ski area in Borşa seems to be profitable, as long as the recently concluded 2024-2025 ski season was the best, in terms of the over 100,000 cards sold for the gondola that provides access to the Olympic slope, at a price of 160 lei/day.

The Borşa mayor stated: "In the first year, we sold 35,000 cards for the winter period. In the second season, we reached almost 50,000, and in the season that just passed, 100,000 cards were sold. It was also the best ski season we had. Mainly, the tourists who come to us, both during the summer and winter periods, from Romania are from the counties of Constanţa, Brăila, Galaţi, Iaşi, Bacău and, in the last two years, they have also started to come from the southern area, from Oltenia, and from the western part of Romania, Timiş and Bihor. From abroad, during the winter, tourists come to us from the Republic of Moldova, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary".

The ski slope in Borşa has a length of 2,850 meters, with a difference in level of 777 meters, being the only Olympic slope in Romania. The slope is equipped with an artificial snow installation, consisting of 33 snow cannons, with a reservoir at an altitude of 1,300 meters. Also at an altitude of 1,300 meters, there is an intermediate station, for beginner skiers who use the lower part, where the slope is smoother. The installation is automatic, which allows the slope to be covered with a layer of snow of 40 centimeters over its entire length and width of 50 meters in 72 hours.

The Olympic slope is approved by the International Ski Federation for five of the six types of competitions that can be organized under the aegis of that federation.

"I have The Balkan Ski Cup and the National Ski Championship have been organized here twice. Last year we had skiers from 24 countries invited. Next year we are trying to organize a snowboard world cup stage and, later, we will see how we get to the queen sport, a downhill competition for women or men", said Mayor Ioan Timiş.

At the base of the slope there is a ski equipment rental center and a restaurant, objectives managed, like the gondola, by a commercial company established by the Borşa Local Council.

A good news for future tourists, who will stay at least three nights at a hotel or guesthouse in Borşa, is that from autumn, through the Visit Borşa Fidelity program, they will receive various facilities and discounts, such as 30% on the ski pass, 15% at the sports goods store, 15% at the restaurant, but also on all tourist activities organized in the city.

The Borşa mayor also told us that the investments do not stop here and that he wants to obtain funding of at least 50 from the future Regional Operational Program 2027 - 2032 million euros, so that the Olympic slope here, with the old slope in the Runcu Ştiolului area and with the one in Pasul Prislop will be connected, thus obtaining around 25 kilometers of interconnected ski slopes, equipped with artificial snow along their entire length, and to which access will be made with the same subscription.

Ion Sorin Timiş told us: "The first phase of the project includes six new facilities and the construction of a new reservoir in the Ştiol area, which will supply the new slopes with snow. So far, we have done the topographic surveys of the entire area, which includes 4,800 hectares. Together with a company from Berlin, we made a 3D model, which shows what the slopes are like, how the facilities are to be installed. We laid the power line, we made the access roads, we have the approval from the National Park and, together with the Transcablu company from Braşov, we are carrying out feasibility studies in order to obtain financing, both through the 2027-2032 ROP and from other sources of financing. Another phase of the project includes a spa center with indoor and outdoor covered swimming pools, as well as an adventure park. An adventure park with 13 instalations, which will operate both in winter and summer, including a facility that produces snow at positive temperatures of up to 30 degrees Celsius and there will be a 120-meter slope that will be covered with snow even in summer and, of course, the artificial slope on a portion of the Olympic slope can be used also in summer, both for ice-ski enthusiasts and for the sports part".

The mayor also mentioned that he wants to revive ski jumping, on the existing trampolines in the area, the construction of an astronomical observatory at the top of the Olympic ski slope and a cable car that will connect the city of Borşa to the Pietrosul Rodnei peak, the highest mountain peak in the Eastern Carpathians.

• Mocăniţa - the number 1 attraction of Voivodal Maramureş

Mocăniţa from Vişeu de Sus, the train that climbs 47 kilometers up the Vaser Valley, a distance of which only 21.6 kilometers are intended for tourists, for many years it has been the emblem of Maramures in the field of tourism. The train pulled by a steam locomotive travels a difficult route in the wild landscape of the Maramures Voivodal mountains, the route being inaugurated almost a hundred years ago. The first locomotive that traveled this route was called Măriuţa, built at the Orenstein&Koppel factory in Berlin in 1910, and in the past the railway was used only for the transport of wood and workers who worked on cutting trees from the forests located in the Vaser Valley, but also miners and gold seekers who came to these lands. The narrow-gauge railway that winds through the Vaser Valley was built in 1932, but was destroyed in World War II, and was later rehabilitated.

On the route, which departs from Vişeu de Sus and reaches the Paltin station, with a short stop at the Glîmboaca station (Piatra Şoimului), you can also see various caves, as well as tunnels that were built during the First and Second World Wars, when the front line was in the area. In fact, also in the area, you can find several common cemeteries where the soldiers who fell on the battlefield here during the two world wars found their eternal rest.

Currently, in addition to the wood trains, there is also a train for tourists, operated by a private company. Depending on the number of tourists, up to 7 train sets are available, each pulled by steam locomotives, ready to take you on a real journey through time. The journey to the station where the lunch stop is made takes about two hours, and tourists are welcomed with traditional dishes, music, dance and good cheer. Mocăniţa resumed its summer schedule starting April 1, 2025, with departures scheduled daily until the end of October. The company that manages the mocăniţa also makes a few special trips during the winter holidays.

We have chosen to present in this material only two of the main tourist attractions of Maramureş, which are in addition to the one we just discovered in Săcel and which we reported on in the pages of the BURSA newspaper at the end of last week.

Read Minunile Maramureşului: Simfonia lutului din Săcel

We will return this week with the presentation of other dream places in Maramureş, among which, recently, the village of Breb, with its traditional houses, is also included.