On the occasion of launching the programme communication campaign, which took place on Saturday morning, in the Sibiu City Hall, Mayor Klaus Johannis declared that he expected an additional number of 400,000 - 500,000 visitors in 2007, versus the normal annual average of 100,000 foreign tourists. Johannis said that investments exceeding EUR 100 M in modernizing Sibiu were made, without considering the works in process at the city airport.

“The current situation in Sibiu is that this is a construction site city. This will change for the better soon”, Johannis said, mentioning that an important part of the restoration and upgrading works, which are in process in the city, will be completed until November.

“Works are conducted throughout the entire city in order to make Sibiu a functional city, to make it a modern and comfortable city for inhabitants, a nice and an attractive place for tourists”, Johannis added

Johannis outlined his discontent related to the lack of implication of the National Tourism Agency (ANT) in next year’s programme and he affirmed that he expects that a large number of tourists would arrive in Sibiu on their own, and not within programmes conducted by tour agencies.

Unfortunately, at this moment, Sibiu experiences a real difficulty when it comes to the access gates to the city considering that the modernisation works conducted at the airport will be completed only next year and the railway is almost - inexistent. Modernisation works have started here, and will last until next year.

For the moment the entire area looks like a construction site and people have to make a detour of the whole railway area in order to get into the city.

Regarding the city’s surrounding belt, whose construction is in process, this will be completed only after 2008. Therefore, Johannis specified that attempts were made in order to secure a fluent traffic at least within the city and in this respect an investment worth EUR 15 M was made in works expected to end in November.

The communication campaign related to the “Sibiu - European Cultural Capital 2007” programme was launched at national level on Saturday, at the same time with broadcasting the TV spot signed by the publicity agency GAV/Scholz & Friends on TVR 1 channel. At European level, the campaign will start on October 20, on National Geographic, Travel and Euronews.

The spot has two options for the soundtrack: one uses underground music by the artist Silent Strike from Yama Studio, and the second one, performed by quartet Arpeggione, more nostalgic, reminds of the soundtrack of the movie “In the mood for love” and it is aimed at summarising the 850 years of historic existence of the city, according to Lucian Georgescu, Managing Partner of GAV / Scholz & Friends.

The TV spot tells about a young girl who discovered the underground tunnels of Sibiu, walking to light. The light is, as Lucian Georgescu affirmed, the date of January 1, 2007, the moment when the programme “Sibiu - European Cultural Capital” starts.
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