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The president of the Association for the Promotion of Timisoara (APT) and former head of the Romanian Tourist Information and Promotion Office in Vienna, Simion Giurca, says that the year of the European Capital of Culture TM2023 /ECC2023 brought a lot of visibility to Timisoara, but the number of tourists could be higher, although exceeded 1.3 million visitors, with over 800,000 overnight stays.
"The fact that Timisoara was the European Capital of Culture helped us, and the proven visibility shows us this: we were nominated by Times magazine, that we were recommended as a must-visit European destination by The Independent, by The Times, by The New York Times, one of the most important tourism publications in the world. It is clear that we have managed to reach the visibility parameters (...) We have more than 1.3 million (based on the data communicated by the event organizers, credible sources) which makes me think that Timisoara has been seen from a cultural point of view. We will continue the counting, and in February 2024 we will announce the final data," Simion Giurca said.
This year, Timisoara was also visited by groups of exotic tourists, said Giurca, a notable one being from Taiwan, who especially appreciated the ultra-central pedestrian zone, which is the largest in Romania.
Simona Neumann, former executive director of the Timisoara ECC2021 Association since its inception, for nine and a half years, emphasizes that the recent end of the cultural year of ECC2023 is a symbolic one, because a development of Timisoara on another level should follow.
