I just had today, on WhatsApp, a conversation with a former classmate, who posted some photos from Baile Herculane (Herculean Baths? – a touristic destination from Roman times with geothermal springs). The situation is dire. I advised her rather strongly to fight, to which she countered with the refrain I constantly hear in this situations: “you are disconnected from the Romanian reality”.

This is the third installment in the Venus Incident series, the first two being in Romanian: 1, a summary of the events and 2, more contextual info. Although this one is not about my experience in Romanian tourism, It is similar in that it’s colored by my friends’ claim that my views (“do something about if it bothers you”) are determined by my disconnect from the Romanian reality, where nothing good ever happens.

There have been, however, numerous articles and TV shows on the Baile Herculane. Even I have mentioned it before as I went there with grandma (who recently passed away).

• Firstly, both TVR (Dec 2013, 11:19 and October 2015) and The Money Channel (Nov 2014, 52:32) did some interesting investigations, none being favorable to the Mayor, Nicusor Vasilescu. ProTV had one in the cycle “Romania, I love you”  about 3 years ago (2014), suggesting that “Verbinski”, the biggest investor, keeps promising, but even though he started repairs in 2011, nothing is yet finished and it’s unclear if he really wants tourism or to resell; there are allegations of wrongdoing against Hotel Apollo former owner, Axente Obrejan, from the same village as the director of the auction commission, Ionesie Ghiorghioni. Digi24 treats it together with a few other resorts on May 2014, claiming Romania, with its 40 such resorts, has 1/3 of European “potential”.
• Ciprian Plaiasu writes in an undated article in Historia about, well, the history of this place, then the questionable post-1989 privatization that gave it all away to one Iosif Armas. The Mayor blames the latter as well as the Minister of Tourism of that time, Dan Matei Agathon. There was some flooding in 2005, the government promised a few millions, but nothing came of it. Armas accumulated debts and his interests slowly auctioned. Ownership changed for quite a few buildings to Valeriu Verbiţchi.
• Alexandra Georgescu writes in Adevarul (“The Truth”) in October 2015, the very same article (from “Istoria modernă a staţiunii începe după 1718” on) published in Historia. At least this one’s date-stamped. Though Historia is part of Adevarul, this obvious plagiarism is still horrible.
• George Damian publishes in ghiduri turistice a first person account of a trip there with numerous photos. Roxana goes back in June 2015.
• NapocaNews combines the history with photos and a first person account, but no info on why or who is responsible for the situation.
• Adrian Pop presents the situation concisely in Transilvania Reporter, noting that abandoned buildings are not taxed as long as they do not host tourists, thus creating a perverse incentive for the status quo to be prolonged ad infinitum.
• Dani Stanciu writes in July 2013 in Banat Express about Minister of Tourism Maria Grapini who, like her predecessor, Elena Udrea, promised to do many things.
• Veronica Radulescu wrote in Hotnews back in 2007 a first person account of a trip.

It seems to me that Baile Herculane mystery has been fully elucidated and various Ministers of Tourism articulated a legislative path, but never got to step on it. This is significant progress when compared to other situations, described in press but never fully, raising more questions than answering (see sources for such ProTV stories).

I think that one person cannot change much, but if more of us do something (as little as writing about it), a critical mass could form, maybe even a non-profit, and things might start moving. Or maybe things will change ad kalendas dacas.

Sources / More info: protv-lowstdE, protv-scoalaWC