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On Friday 11th September, circa 40 people, many of whom were members of BRCC, cfas and EBW, met in Sibiu, for one of the first local offline networking events since the crisis.

The theme of the evening was collaboration, partnerships and networks are key to long-term sustainable growth and the event provided a platform to explain the initiative the business groups, working together and started by Norman Frankel, local Sibiu representative for BRCC, had pulled together in the space of just 20 working days.  The local business groups worked together with Sibiu County Tourism on the initiative to promote family tourism and experiences around Sibiu, which saw over 12 different experiences promoted over two-weekends, and with discounts available when showing a Sibiu Experience Pass.

The first keynote speech from Mrs Daniel Cimpean, President of Sibiu County, underlined why Sibiu remains an attractive county to invest in.  The County is keen to receive bids from international organisations as competition leads to better quality.  Some of many planned initiatives are:

  • €230m of EU Fund backing to improve county road infrastructure and to continue the highway ring around Sibiu city on the South side.
  • €500m Euro health infrastructure upgrade, including the building of the new county hospital and modernisation of the existing health facilities. In addition to construction there is a need for quality supply of equipment and knowledge;
  • €50m Euro upgrade for for the Integrated System of Waste Management: waste treatment facilities to reduce landfilled quantities, modern waste disposal for special waste streams. Modern technologies and knowledge for implementation of the European Green Deal in Sibiu County are sought.

Details of bids to encourage tenders are timely published on Sibiu County website www.cjsibiu.ro .

Another keynote speaker was Mr Alin Chipaila, President of Sibiu County Tourism who highlighted the hard-hitting impact this year has had on a region where significant revenues annually are usually expected from tourism.  Looking forward some of the mid-term tourism goals in Sibiu are:

  • Encourage more green tourism and experiences outside Sibiu City Centre, within the county. An example of this is that Sibiu has been named host European region for 2021 for Ramblers and Hikers where from 29th Sept to 3rd Oct 2021, Sibiu will host the Annual European Ramblers Association. Behind this there will be a year planned with themes to encourage tourism outside and in nature, which is about as Covid friendly as you can get!;
  • Other initiatives include Sibiu being part of the Via Transilvania route. An inauguration of this will take place this 20th September at Biertan;
  • A major project is the digitalisation of the county Tourism website with over 6,000 pages of content. It needs to be much more responsive, mobile friendly and start incorporating new features and technologies into the experience. The goal is to make it easier to help people find out what to do and where to eat. In this respect, working on the Sibiu Experience Pass as a concept test, fits well with the tourism goals and it will encourage owners of experiences to collaborate together to create a supportive network.

Collaboration, Partnerships and Networking is important to connect the dots because as a TEAM – Together Everyone Achieves More.  By working together synergies can be built and everyone can win, the business, the community and the tourist.

An evening highlight was the short 5-minute talks given by some of the Experience Providers on their offering and their vision/plans for the future.  Members of the business groups are invited to reach out to them to explore how you can help them achieve their plans.  The following speeches were given:

  • Mr Mihai Blotor, of SibiuAgnita Railway, talked about the Mocanita project and the vision to extend this out toward the Sibiu direction with the village of Mohu being a target. The railway is entirely run by volunteers and so needs awareness in companies to encourage more voluntary workers. They also need rock, lumber and any financial assistance to purchase their own locomotive and rolling stock. Anyone who can help is welcome to email mihai@sibiuagnitarailway.com
  • Mr Ben Breit, of Benzoi, talked about the Air Experiences available at Magura Airfield, Cisnadie. They organise sky-diving, various forms of light aircraft flights, hot-air balloons and radio controlled plane displays.  The vision is to expand the activities and become one of 4 key location centres for air related experiences in Romania. An immediate need is to purchase an own plane rather than charter one each time sky dives take place, this will improve margins and the ability to invest more locally. €40k of a target €120k has been raised. A prospectus setting out other needs and investment opportunities is available by email from info@benzoi.ro
  • Mr Viorel Nicoara, of Road Runner Karting, near Metro, Sibiu talked about karting and the international competitions they children that race attend. The vision is to build an International Karting Circuit near Sibiu and funding is needed for this along with good construction and asphalt. Anyone interested in investing in this area and continuing the success the business and competitors are having can email info@karting.ro
  • Mrs Georgiana Tara, of Trail Trips Romania talked about their custom made active tourism packages to help discover Romania and her cultures. This includes foraging trips with survival skills in the woods to culinary rural journeys. They seek help from bloggers and story writers to take the word to the online market. Anyone interested can email enjoy@trailtripsromania.com
  • Mr Alin Trif, of The House of Golf, at Apfelhaus, Sibiu talked about the mini-golf course they have and the driving golf range and the lessons/coaching provided. The mini-golf is fun for children whilst parents eat at the Restaurant. He also talked about plans to bring from the USA a golf driving range simulator which will allow further technique training to be developed. For more information email mrtrifalin@hotmail.com
  • Mrs Liliana Paraipan, of Forest Villas, Cisnadioara is no stranger to the world of wellness as she was the first person in Romania to open a dedicated Spa centre many years ago. The programme has been developed to tackle the way we live today and has embraced mindfulness and yoga programmes designed to help give people a break from being always online. For more information email contact@lilianaparaipan.ro

Attendees at the event were also given a code to unlock a Questo App on the Sibiu Experiences Walking Tour.  Questo provide apps in global locations, many of which are in Romania and Europe and allows participants of all ages to gamify their exploration of a location and learn about it through experience quests.

Subject to feedback from experience providers and participants who tried experiences out over the weekends, the plan is for the business groups and local tourism team to expand the platform, grow and develop it for next year to fit in with both the European Ramblers Year and the ViaTransilvania walking route.

Post event, Alin Chipaila and Norman Frankel were invited to address the members of DWS (Deutscher Wirtschaftsclub Siebenburgen), the local German Business Group.  Following this and enthusiasm to support the idea, Andreas Spaeck will represent DWS to work with the other business groups to expand the initiative.

Thibaut Desmons is the cfas representative, Ella Botez Gheorghioiu is the EBW representative, Mihaela Rotaru the ULBS Meet the Entrepreneur representative and Norman Frankel is the BRCC representative

Business members are welcome to contact their local representative to obtain more details and work out how they may participate.