The Republic of Moldova has rich and diverse heritage with potential, but this remains undiscovered. The tourist potential of the heritage is not realized and its economic value is consequently not explored, director general of the Agency for Monument Inspection and Restoration Ion Ștefăniță stated in a news conference at IPN.
According to him, it is important to educate the young generation and society in general to have a responsible attitude to cultural heritage and to learn about the economic value this can produce. “Through the agency of his heritage, we can develop our villages, towns and country,” noted Ion Ștefăniță.
He also said that there was total indifference to what cultural and natural heritage meant in Moldova and a number of sites were in a deplorable situation. After 2010, these were made a “diagnosis” and professional human resources are needed to “treat” them. The young people who study cultural heritage in Moldova should continue their professional formation in France, where there are over 20 universities that offer this possibility, and to then return home and put the accumulated knowledge into practice.
A step in this regard was also the fact collection and professional formation visit to the Vendee Department in France paid by a group of 11 persons, who included postgraduates studying historical heritage and cultural tourism at the Teacher Training University “Ion Creangă”, during May 12-16. “They could learn about the management of the six historical-cultural sites of the given Department and not only. The Moldovan students now know the positive examples discovered in France. It was a national resetting in the field for them. We need trained people in the field of culture,” stated Ion Ștefăniță.
He noted that tourism at the Vendee Department is the top activity with an annual turnover of €2.6 billion. The owned littoral is 250 km long and this is a protected area. More than 1,500 events, festivals and concerts take place there annually.
“The tourists leave money, contributing to the sustainable development of the Department. This lesson of the economic value of heritage should be learned by everyone in the Republic of Moldova – high-ranking and local functionaries, private individuals. Everyone can learn these elements that we pretend to ignore from the French people. We must ponder over and develop the state,” concluded Ion Ștefăniță.
