ROMANIAN TOURIST BRAND

After the communist period Romania made few steps to present itself as a tourist destination at international level after a long time. Romania has an important tourist potential due to its geographical position and its complex natural environment. This richness of potential tourist products generated a wrong idea that at international level Romania is a desired and popular tourist destination. The WTTC recommendations in 2006 report were to urge the branding process and within it to promote Romania’s diverse and tourist unique regions. The goal of the paper is to present the international context from country brand point of view and to analyse Romania’s actions in this complex process of branding. Romania offers a complete package (mountain, cultural destination, Danube Delta, Black Sea) and tourist destinations are situated near one to each other. Also, Romania has several national and international values which should be exploited properly. The study highlights competitive advantages of the country as a tourist destination, strengths of Romanian’s tourist products and analyses actions made for the branding process of our country as a tourist destination. Branding process for Romania is making only the first, timid, step.