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, acting Minister of Economy, Digitalisation, Entrepreneurship and Tourism Irineu Darau said on Tuesday during the closing conference of the project 'Mystical Danube - Green and Mystical Danube Storytelling Route'.

'When we were children, probably all of us grew up with stories. Stories about places, stories about people, stories about destinations worth living in and returning to. Today we are here precisely because we decided together that the stories of the Danube deserve to be heard by everyone.

'The Mystical Danube project started from a simple question: how do we ensure that beautiful but forgotten places are rediscovered? How do we help communities facing hardship, unemployment, young people leaving, and a local identity at risk of being lost, to find their place on the map of Europe?

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

'We have built something tangible in Calarasi - a Tourist Information Centre set up in the tourist harbour, which will serve as the gateway for visitors entering the world of the Danube in Calarasi. It is not just any centre; it is the place where a tourist from Vienna, Ljubljana or Budapest will first hear the story of this area. It is the place where a local resident will realise they live somewhere special. We also created a transnational strategy, which our colleagues from Croatia will present later today,' Darau stated.

The official added that the 'Mystical Danube - Green and Mystical Danube Storytelling Route' project aimed to promote the cultural and natural heritage of the Danube region.

'It is a strategy for promoting the cultural, intangible and natural heritage of the entire Danube region - a shared roadmap developed together so that the richness of these places does not remain unknown. We have drafted public policy recommendations for sustainable tourism, which our Hungarian partners will also present during this event.

'We have gone beyond the project itself, showing through this initiative what governments should do, what needs to change, and what direction should be followed. We developed an action plan for tourism products and services in the Calarasi area. And because an action plan without commitment remains only on paper, we will sign a cooperation memorandum with the Dunarea Calaraseana Destination Management Organisation, an act through which the local community takes responsibility for continuing this work.

'And perhaps most importantly, we worked with the people of these places - through workshops, meetings and genuine conversations with those who live and work in these communities. Because no strategy is worth anything unless it is built with and for the people there,' the minister stressed.

On Tuesday, the Romanian Ministry of Economy, Digitalisation, Entrepreneurship and Tourism organised the international conference 'Routes Connecting People' at the Palace of the Parliament.

The event marked the completion of the implementation of the 'Mystical Danube - Green and Mystical Danube Storytelling Route' project, carried out between January 1, 2024 and June 30, 2026.

The project is 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.

Of the total allocated budget of 1.9 million euros, the contribution of the Romanian Ministry of Economy, Digitalisation, Entrepreneurship and Tourism amounted to 153,000 euros, while 80% came from ERDF funds and 20% from national funds.

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

The aim of the project is to develop a coordinated transnational approach to promoting the intangible cultural and natural heritage of lesser-visited rural areas along the Danube and to stimulate local economic development through the promotion of a thematic route.

The project was implemented in Calarasi County and in the south-western part of Constanta County, including the localities of Ostrov, Lipnita, Ion Corvin, Aliman, Rasova, Adamclisi and Baneasa. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Daniel Badea; EN - writing by: Cristina Zaharia)