The Palace of the Parliament hosted this week the international conference “Routes Connecting People”, marking the completion of the “Mystical Danube – Green and Mystical Danube Storytelling Route” project, implemented between January 1, 2024 and June 30, 2026.

Speaking at the closing session, acting Minister of Economy, Digital Transformation, Entrepreneurship and Tourism Irineu Darau said the initiative had placed Calarasi County firmly on a new transnational cultural tourism map.

“The Green and Mystical Danube Storytelling Route is a route crossing nine countries, linking people, cultures and landscapes, in which Calarasi County has found a well-deserved place,” Darau said.

The minister told participants that the project began with a simple question: how to bring visibility back to “beautiful but forgotten places” and support communities facing depopulation, unemployment and the erosion of local identity.

“Our answer was the Green and Mystical Danube Storytelling Route,” he said. “A route crossing nine countries, connecting people, cultures and landscapes, and in which Calarasi County, our pilot region, has secured its rightful place.”

A key deliverable is the new Tourist Information Centre in the Calarasi tourist harbour, designed as the entry point for visitors exploring the Danube region.

“It is the place where a tourist from Vienna, Ljubljana or Budapest will first hear the story of this area,” Darau noted. “It is the place where a local resident will realize they live somewhere special.”

The project also produced a transnational strategy, to be presented by Croatian partners, and public policy recommendations for sustainable tourism, prepared with Hungarian experts.

Darau stressed that the initiative goes beyond infrastructure and strategy documents. “Through this initiative we have shown what governments should do, what needs to change, and what direction should be followed,” he said.

An action plan for tourism products and services in the Calarasi area has been drafted, and a cooperation memorandum with the Dunarea Calaraseana Destination Management Organisation is set to be signed to ensure continuity.

“No strategy is worth anything unless it is built with and for the people there,” the minister added, highlighting workshops and community consultations held throughout the region.

The “Mystical Danube – Green and Mystical Danube Storytelling Route” project was financed through the European Regional Development Fund under the Interreg Danube Region Programme 2021–2027, Priority Axis 3, Specific Objective 3.3 (socio-economic development through heritage, culture and tourism).

The total budget is €1.9 million, of which the contribution of the Romanian Ministry of Economy, Digital Transformation, Entrepreneurship and Tourism amounted to 153,000 euros, 80% came from ERDF funds and 20% from national funds.

The initiative was developed by a transnational partnership involving institutions from nine Danube countries: Romania, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovakia, Montenegro, Hungary and Bulgaria.

Its aim is to promote the intangible cultural and natural heritage of lesser-visited rural areas along the Danube and stimulate local economic development through a coordinated thematic route.

The Romanian pilot area covered Calarasi County and the south-western part of Constanta County, including the localities of Ostrov, Lipnita, Ion Corvin, Aliman, Rasova, Adamclisi and Baneasa.