Rural Tourism and Economic Diversification in Maramures
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p z c UDC No.3 p 22-12 tinarilor’ chalet. Mineral water is avail- Rural Tourism and Economic able at such places as Baile Borsa, Craci- unesti, Dragomiresti, Faina and Valea Vi- Diversification in Maramures, nului but the springs have not yet at- tracted any significant use outside their respective localities. A small bathhouse Romania at Botiza is appreciated by the locals be- cause of the curative properties of the water but it has no commercial signif- Muica, N.* icance. Bathing is available at former Turnock, D.** salt mines, particularly Ocna Sugatag (also referred to as Ocna Maramuresu- here has been a modest tourist in- lui), where a modern hotel now operates. Abstract dustry in Maramures for a long time Mountain chalets and boarding houses Maramures is one of the mountain re- T(Iacob 1981) with a range of hotels are largely restricted to the effective gions of Romania where rural tourism in the county town of Baia Mare com- area for weekend recreation around Baia pilot projects have been started. The paper plemented by more modest provision Mare and although the Puzdrele chalet examines the potentials for this business in Sighetu Marmatiei (Sighet for short), is available in the Rodna but there is no in the western part of the county (‘old the smaller towns and the rural areas. chain of such hostels comparable with Maramures’) and evaluates the progress The countryside in the southern parts of the Bucegi or Fagaras Mountains (Ianos made so far through the setting up of Maramures - the districts of Codru (be- & Iacob 1985). Development of facilities local tourist associations, the publishing yond the Somes), Chaior, south of Baia is highly appropriate at the present time of accommodation lists and the provision Mare, and Lapus in the southeast - is rel- and the main purpose of this paper is for a range of activities. The resources atively unspectacular but in ‘old’ Mara- to outline the potential for rural tour- are very considerable but the area suffers mures, comprising the Iza and Viseu val- ism in the area and to evaluate the prog- from remoteness and a number of other leys, the surrounding country is much ress made to date in the context of con- constraints will have to be overcome if more attractive and the cultural life is es- straints and opportunities. employment in tourism is going to play pecially rich. The Maramures Mountains a significant economic role in the future. mark the frontier with Ukraine, comple- However it is very important that ini- menting the Ignis-Gutai-Tibles range to The Local Context tiatives should succeed in view of recent the south (Figure 1). The latter culmi- Under communism the area remained mine closures and the growing depen- nate in the Rodna Mountains which offer somewhat isolated since this northern dence on seasonal employment outside the potential for winter sports and it is here border region had no major internation- region at a time when the local labour at ‘Complex Borsa’ where most of the al transit function and the main line rail- market is still expanding. accommodation outside Baia Mare has way along the Tisa Valley (built by the been provided: including the ‘Cascada’ Hungarians in the late nineteenth cen- Key words: Agriculture, Diversification, and ‘Stibina’ hotels and the ‘Hanul Bu- tury), which looped into Romanian ter- Handicrafts, Mining, Rural Tourism, Unemployment * Nicolae Muica, Geography Institute, Str. Dimitrie Racovita 12, 70307 Bucharest 20, Romania ** DavidTurnock Geography Department, The Fig. 1. The pastoral economy of Maramures: a group of boys watch the cattle on the Botiza University, Leicester LE1 7RH, U.K. common grazing 22 p z c Turnock, D. Turnock, Muica, N. ritory between Campulung pe Tisa and try, is undergoing severe contraction and now that commuting from the country- Valea Viseului in order to reach Sighet, unemployment is now a serious prob- side to factory work in urban areas is was used only by former-Soviet freight lem. The Remin Company of Baia Mare, greatly reduced, while a relatively high trains after the USSR annexed the east- which operates 16 mining complexes in birth rate continually increases the la- ernmost part of former-Czechoslovakia Maramures and adjacent areas declared bour surplus, there are many more young in 1945 and abandoned the arrangements some 5,900 redundancies in 1997 (45.5 people who wish to earn money outside which had previously enabled Romanians percent of the total employed). Land res- Maramures through seasonal work to to reach Sighet in transit via Satu Mare titution is generating more interest in generate funds which can be invested in and Halmeu. Consequently an all-Roma- agriculture but the markets are too weak small farms and businesses back home. nian route to Sighet which has been tem- to stimulate investment and intensifica- The men find forest work in Apuseni, porarily held up by the war was pushed tion. And the latest environmental legis- Banat and Poiana Rusca; also in the con- ahead with renewed vigour after 1945 lation has had an adverse effect on pasto- struction of tourist bungalows and cha- and completed in 1949. The principal ral farming through restricting the use of lets in the Brasov-Prahova area, railway local roads were improved (crossing the woodland for sheep grazing (Idu 1998). maintenance (especially in Arges and Gutai Pass at 1109m between Baia Mare Many people have moved to Banat (some Satu Mare) and in building work abroad and Sighetul Marmatiei and the Neteda 16,000 over the past decade) where the (especially in Austria, Germany, Greece, Pass at 1093m between Targu Lapus and emigration of Germans has made hous- France, Israel, Italy and Turkey) while Budesti) but old Maramures remained es available, but economic diversifica- the womenfolk manage the homes and relatively unknown especially in view tion within Maramures is much needed small farms. At the same time, both men of the delay in surfacing the main road (Pop 1997). Initially rural development and women seek temporary work in ag- from Bucovina over the Prislop Pass strategies were discussed by a Commis- riculture: haymaking on the Tarnava Pla- (1,416m), between Borsa and Iacobeni, sion for Mountainous Regions operating teau, Sibiu Depression and Getic Sub- which would have opened the way for within the Ministry of Agriculture and carpathians (where the local population tourists to travel by car through the some progress was made in disseminat- is elderly and resident active men have northern regions from Suceava to Baia ing West European principles of rural di- more rewarding occupations); and har- Mare and Satu Mare. versification and ‘mountainology’. This vesting field crops in Banat-Crisana, fruit The region maintained its traditional- work is now in the hands of the Regional in the Arges, Satu Mare and Valcea areas ly high rate of natural increase, but con- Development Council for the North West and grapes in Moldavia and Vaslui (Popa- siderable employment was generated by Region created in 1998 (one of eight Bota & Iuja 1999). Such experience con- the expansion of mining for non-ferrous large regions coordinating regional de- tributes new ideas on architecture and ores (Opris 1983) and also in the man- velopment measures with EU structural resource management; though customs ufacturing industries of Baia Mare and assistance) (Guvernul Romaniei 1997). and traditions are not affected. Sighet, while the agricultural and forest- However, the scale of the problem is In this context rural cultural tourism ry work remained labour-intensive. Even such that people are having to leave the has surfaced as a new business with con- so there was net out-migration from the district to find seasonal work. This is a siderable local potential which could be- area and many young men took seasonal traditional response to a situation where come part of a programme of integrated work in farms and forests throughout the peripherality discourages light manufac- regional reconstruction by local interests country; returning home for the major tures and where the modest agricultur- with significant academic input; notably festivals and at peak times of agricultural al potential for arable farming opens the the ‘Schita Propunerilor Destinate Revi- activity in areas that were not collectiv- way for casual work in the main cereal- talizarii Economico-Sociale a Maramure- ised (Iacob 1961). But the mining indus- growing areas for payment in kind. But sului’ prepared by a Bucharest-based ge- Fig. 2. Old Maramures, showing aspects of the rural development plan by G. Iacob. Source: Iacob 1994 23 p z c ographer well-known for his researches rala din Romania’) which convened dis- (‘voievod’) performing social-juridical on Maramures during the last 30 years cussions in 1990 on a range of rural is- and political functions at the head of the (Iacob 1994) (Figure 1). He anticipates sues and considered pilot projects in hierarchy. However, although the Roma- an increase in the number of chalets and 1991 with rural tourism identified as a nians have always been clearly in the mountain resorts (Costiui, Izvorul Izei, specific objective the following year. In majority, there is also a history of set- Runc-Sapanta and Valea Vinului) backed 1993 OVR began to organise a tourist tlement by Germans, Hungarians and up by extensions to the road network. network in 16 villages throughout the Ukrainians during the last few centuries. Borsa has been proposed as a pilot cen- country (selected according to history, Relations have been generally harmoni- tre for the tourist programme of the USA culture and architecture/national patri- ous despite the excesses of the Second Agency for International Development mony) and this work was then placed in World War (when Maramures and north- (USAID) following the preparation of a the context of sustainable rural develop- ern Transylvania returned temporarily strategic plan by the Maramures Coun- ment - following the Rio de Janeiro Con- to Hungarian administration) resulting ty Council working with consultants in ference on sustainable living.