"Courage Ahead: You Are Welcome!" Authentic and tasty cuisine, stemming from all historical and geographical influences, wines and other autochthonous drinks with personality, events and contemporary Romanian lifestyle - this is the axis and slogan on which the latest communication initiative to promote Romania to the national public is carried out and international – WeAreRomania.com.
Fwaved by journalists specializing in gastronomy and wines that caused the adoption by the Parliament of "On the National Day of Romanian Gastronomy and Wines" Cosmin Dragomir and Cezar Ioan, together with HoReCa entrepreneur Eugen Cătălin Mahu, the movement of ideas #WeAreRomania #YouAreWelcome it runs through "Courage Forward" cultural association and puts in the foreground a Romania full of taste and joy of living, welcoming and appetizing, which is worth discovering. They were joined, in the first phase, by other specialists from different fields and who bring added value to the initiative: Ștefan Chirițescu (marketing strategies), Carmina Nițescu (tourism), Adriana Sohodoleanu (gastronomy), Adelina Boboc (communication), Mihnea Dumitru (civil society).
"You Are Welcome" - idea materialized for the beginning in the form of a "think tank" and the online communication platform in English WeAreRomania.com - provides a communication vector for various initiatives organized by the founders, such as culinary festivals, conferences, presentation films, wine-gastrotourism routes, profile publicity. Actions taken by various other entities with similar aims are equally welcome.
If we don't talk about the values of the Romanian gastronomic culture, others will - stupid!
"It is a private, voluntary approach, through which we make up for the lack of interest on the part of the authorities or the amateurism proven far too many times in promoting Romania's tourism outside the country. We want to grow a vehicle for communicating our values adapted to new technologies and trends in social media. At the moment, we are a handful of enthusiasts who voluntarily allocate some of their time to the construction of this project: we have also initiated discussions with other long-term partners from various fields of interest for this endeavor, and the list is open to anyone who can bring surplus value. Promotion through this platform can benefit both local entrepreneurs who contribute to the development of communities, associations promoting concepts suitable to the general theme, but especially Destination Management Organizations and other institutions with similar purposes. Proposals are passed through the team's editorial filter WeAreRomania.com and promoted according to the opportunity and the pace of project development. The service is free of charge within the availability of the coordinating team. The initiators wish and propose to raise funds for self-support and development", show the founders #WeAreRomania #YouAreWelcome.
The founders of the project also show - with concrete examples available in the form of books or other online resources written by foreigners - that "If we do not speak, knowingly, about the values of the Romanian gastronomic culture, others will continue to do it and we will end up like Romania to be known by enormities such as "Rădăuţa guinea pig soup", "tofu as a traditional Romanian entree", "Alaska crab and salmon in ancient local recipes" or "cappuccino from the time of Dracula".
All those who want to contribute, support or propose different collaborations are asked to write to the address contact@weareromania.com.
photo credit: dreamstime.com, official partner of the project.
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