1 März - Frühling Tradition in Rumänien

"Die Rumänen feiern am 1. März "Martisor" - den Frühlingsanfang. Frauen und Kindern schenkt man an diesen Tagen ein "Märzchen" - einen Glücksbringer - zum Beispiel ein vierblättriges Kleeblatt, Schornsteinfeger, Hufeisen oder ein kleines Herzchen - mit rot-weissem Band. Überall auf den Straßen findet man kleine Stände, wo diese in unterschiedlichster Form kaufbar sind.

Diese Tradition stammt schon aus vorchristlicher Zeit, von den Geto-Dakern, den Ureinwohner Rumäniens, die ein Stamm der Thraker sind. Am Anfang wurden aus Schafwolle zwei Fäden, rot und weiß, gesponnen und von den Frauen den Männern geschenkt, die sie sich um das Handgelenk banden. Die beiden Farben symbolisieren den Schnee und die Sonne.
Unter dem Schnee schlummern die Keimenden Körner der Feldfrüchte, die von der Sonne ans Licht geholt werden. In dieser Zeit begann die erste Feldarbeit. Man trägt das Märzchen so lange, bis man einen blühenden Baum sieht, dann wirft man es in den Baum und wünscht sich etwas." (Transylvania Travel)

Leveraging nature beauty

It is widely acknowledged by Romanian citizens that our country has been blessed with extraordinary, breath-taking nature landscapes. Given this assumption, why don't we learn from the alpine lands to leverage this beauty into touristic attractions?

There seems to be a virtuous cycle that starts with the low quality of infrastructure / lack of infrastructure in some cases, which prevents tourists from reaching the sites. Apart from this, many possible touristic attractions do no offer any accommodation possibilities except for camping. This excludes, on its turn, some categories of tourists. The low number of tourists leads to limited income, which prevents the development of infrastructure and the preservation of the nature attractions.

Furthermore, let's consider how these touristic attractions could be leveraged by defining the consumer needs that they appeal to.
1. First, there are those tourists who are very active, they go hiking every week and they are willing to pay only a small amount of money in order to visit a certain touristic attraction. This category is the oldest segment, comprised primarily of retired, active people, with relative limited financial resources.

2. The second segment are the families with children. They will usually spend more than one day to visit a site and are willing to spend a significant amount of money. They are looking for family-friendly accommodations (chalets, agritouristic hotels, pensions) and they will only visit those site which have offer a good transportation infrastructure.

3. There are the professional hikers, geologists, other scientists, who don't care about the quality of the access to the sites, nor about the accommodation offered at the sites. This segment is the only one currently targeted.
4. There are the people in their 20-ies to mid 30-ies, married or unmarried, without children, who choose a natural touristic attraction as an escaping place from their daily businesses. They are looking for a good quality of access infrastructure, various types of accommodations, coupled with spas or wellness centers. They are the main revenue source in addition to the family segment.

At this point, I see only these four main consumer segments based on the needs reached and financial power.
A next step would involve the investments and construction of facilities and a targeted marketing.

How do you see the potential of nature beauty?

See below a best practice example from the Rhein waterfalls in Switzerland.

"It is non-swiss to create something that has no function"
"Swiss are the world champions when it comes to saving money "

These two affirmations belong to our guide who showed us the Confederation Parliament. What is more, they provoked me to reflect upon the reasons why Swiss are a wealthy nation.
The first explanation that comes to my mind comes from Max Weber's "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism", in which he argues that capitalism and the pursuit of the economic gain is one of the by-products of the Protestant ethic. Even though this argumentation seems sound enough, I tend to be careful in attributing a result to a single phenomenon. That is, it rather seems to me that this Swiss wealth is the consequence of several determinant factors, bundled together, such as: industry progress and trade (with textiles, watches, cheese), neutrality, autonomy of the cantons in managing their territory (own constitution, tax laws, etc.) and nonetheless protestant religion in half of the Swiss territory.

Secondly, what it first stroke me when I came to St. Gallen and what it was confirmed to me various times is that Swiss don't have extravagant expectations concerning the standard of living, even though they would afford it. If you travel around Switzerland you will notice that the majority of people living in cities live in coupled houses, or in old, restored houses, which however, don't have an extraordinary standard. Coming from a culture where the material properties (house, car, clothes) are a proof of your social status and welfare, it still amazes me that Swiss citizens choose to live in decent (sometimes too decent for my taste), old, houses, which they share with other families. Nevertheless, this could be a good lessons for Romanians, which would also have a positive impact on the Romanian economy (not boosting the consume economy anymore).

Finally, here are some images from Bern:

Regional Development

For those of you who are interesed in regional development, check out this presentation that I made on this topic.

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SG in one word: Concrete

If I were to define St. Gallen in one word, I would definitely say: concrete. "Concrete" not in a figurative meaning or in slang (as Romanian teens used it), but in its basic meaning of "construction material".
Why?
Consider a day in the life of a student here: he/she has the rare and great opportunity to study in a university building made of CONCRETE.

If he/she chooses to do a sport, the sport halls are as well made of CONCRETE.

Furthermore, if one he/she feels the need for a cultural activity, then he/she will go to the theater, which is made of....you're guess is right......CONCRETE.


One doesn't need to be a specialist in architecture to figure out that these guys just love minimalism and CONCRETE buildings.
However, if I hadn't been here, I couldn't have noticed this "insight" about life in SG.

Why?

WHY THIS BLOG?
It has been a few months since a very good friend of mine, reading some research that I have done, suggested me to make it available to everyone. At that time, I didn't take his advice too much into account.
However, I have now realized that such a blog can be an efficient instrument not only for exchanging ideas and informations, but also to gain credibility and recognition. That is, what good to have a certain amount of knowledge if you don't leverage it?
WHY NOW?
A Romanian saying translated into English goes like this: "don't postpone until tomorrow what you can do today". Why wait to start my professional career in order to share my ideas or offer suggestions to problems/issues?
These were the main driving factors for my decision to create this blog.
WHY BLACK?
That's simple....because a black background consumes less energy and is more environmental friendly. Apart from this, is more relaxing for one's eyes.