The Broken Currency: Romania and the Price of Travel

Which is a fascinating case of tourism creating its own reality.

The place becomes what visitors need it to be, not what it actually is.

Pero lo que realmente es, es mucho más interesante.

But what it actually is, is much more interesting.

Transilvania es una región con una historia de mezcla cultural extraordinaria: rumanos, húngaros, alemanes, judíos, todos viviendo juntos y en tensión durante siglos.

Transylvania is a region with an extraordinary history of cultural mixing: Romanians, Hungarians, Germans, Jews, all living together and in tension for centuries.

Las ciudades medievales como Sibiu o Brașov son espectaculares.

Medieval cities like Sibiu or Brașov are spectacular.

Y casi nadie habla de ellas.

And almost nobody talks about them.

Sibiu was actually European Capital of Culture in 2007.

I remember writing a short piece around that time, surprised at how few people seemed to notice.

Y luego están los monasterios pintados de Bucovina, en el norte del país.

And then there are the painted monasteries of Bucovina, in the north of the country.

Son del siglo quince y dieciséis, con frescos extraordinarios en las paredes exteriores.

They're from the 15th and 16th centuries, with extraordinary frescoes on the exterior walls.

Están en la lista del Patrimonio Mundial de la UNESCO.

They're on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

¿Cuánta gente los conoce fuera de Rumanía?

How many people know them outside Romania?

Muy poca.

Very few.

So why hasn't Romania had its moment?

Prague had its moment.

Krakow had its moment.

Lisbon absolutely had its moment.

Why not Bucharest?

Creo que hay dos razones principales.

I think there are two main reasons.

La primera es la imagen: la corrupción política, la pobreza visible, los titulares negativos.

The first is image: political corruption, visible poverty, negative headlines.

La gente tiene miedo de lo que no conoce bien.

People are afraid of what they don't know well.

La segunda es que Rumanía no ha sabido contar su propia historia de una manera que llegue al turista occidental.

The second is that Romania hasn't known how to tell its own story in a way that reaches the Western tourist.

The narrative problem.

Every country needs a narrative, and Romania's official one for decades was Ceaușescu.

And before that, for outsiders, it was the Iron Curtain.

Neither of those is a particularly inviting travel brochure.

Ceaușescu es clave para entender Rumanía como destino de viaje, porque su régimen hizo algo que muy pocos regímenes comunistas hicieron: prácticamente eliminó el turismo internacional.

Ceaușescu is key to understanding Romania as a travel destination, because his regime did something very few communist regimes did: it practically eliminated international tourism.

Rumanía era cerrada, vigilada, y los extranjeros que llegaban eran tratados con sospecha.

Romania was closed, surveilled, and foreigners who arrived were treated with suspicion.

He went further than that.

He restricted internal movement too.

Romanians couldn't freely travel within their own country without state permission in certain periods.

The idea of leisure travel was essentially abolished.

Y cuando cayó el régimen en 1989, de una manera brutal, en televisión, Rumanía tuvo que construir una industria turística desde casi cero.

And when the regime fell in 1989, in a brutal way, on television, Romania had to build a tourism industry from almost zero.

Sin infraestructura, sin tradición, sin imagen positiva en el exterior.

No infrastructure, no tradition, no positive image abroad.

Es un proceso que lleva décadas.

That's a process that takes decades.

I was still in school in 1989.

I remember those images from Bucharest on the news.

The trial, the execution.

It was shocking in a way that other Eastern European transitions weren't.

Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, those were relatively peaceful.

Romania was different.

Y esa diferencia dejó una huella.

And that difference left a mark.

Los rumanos que vivieron aquello no lo olvidan, y el mundo tampoco.

Romanians who lived through that don't forget it, and neither does the world.

Pero treinta y cinco años después, el país ha cambiado de una manera que muchos visitantes no esperan.

But thirty-five years later, the country has changed in a way many visitors don't expect.

Bucarest tiene una vida nocturna que rivaliza con Berlín.

Bucharest has a nightlife that rivals Berlin.

Tiene restaurantes extraordinarios.

It has extraordinary restaurants.

Tiene arquitectura de todos los estilos imaginables.

It has architecture in every imaginable style.

There's that insane building Ceaușescu built, the Palace of the Parliament.

It's the second-largest administrative building in the world after the Pentagon, and he demolished a third of historic Bucharest to build it.

Es una de esas cosas que ves y no puedes creer.

It's one of those things you see and can't believe.

Es tan grande, tan absurdo, tan enorme que resulta casi fascinante.

It's so large, so absurd, so enormous that it becomes almost fascinating.

Los turistas que llegan sin expectativas salen con una historia que contar.

Tourists who arrive without expectations leave with a story to tell.

Y eso, al final, es lo que hace que un destino funcione.

And that, in the end, is what makes a destination work.

But back to the currency.

Because the story this week isn't just historical, it's immediate.

The leu collapses, tourists have more purchasing power, but what does that actually look like on the ground for the people living there?

Para los rumanos, es una situación muy difícil.

For Romanians, it's a very difficult situation.

Muchas familias tienen deudas en euros o en francos suizos, no en leus.

Many families have debts in euros or Swiss francs, not in lei.

Cuando la moneda cae, esas deudas crecen.

When the currency falls, those debts grow.

El coste de la energía, de los alimentos importados, de los medicamentos, todo sube.

The cost of energy, imported food, medicine, everything goes up.

Es una presión enorme sobre la gente con menos recursos.

It's enormous pressure on people with fewer resources.

And there's an uncomfortable tension in promoting a destination on the back of that.

I've been in places where the local currency has just been hammered and you're trying not to think too hard about what your comfortable hotel costs relative to what the people serving you are earning.

Es una tensión real, pero creo que hay una manera de viajar que no es extractiva.

It's a real tension, but I think there's a way to travel that isn't extractive.

Si vas a Rumanía y comes en restaurantes locales, contratas guías locales, te quedas en hoteles pequeños de propietarios rumanos, ese dinero llega a la economía real.

If you go to Romania and eat in local restaurants, hire local guides, stay in small hotels owned by Romanians, that money reaches the real economy.

El problema es cuando el turismo convierte un lugar en un parque temático para extranjeros.

The problem is when tourism turns a place into a theme park for foreigners.

The Venice problem.

The Dubrovnik problem.

Places that became so popular they essentially became uninhabitable for locals.

Exactamente.

Exactly.

Y Rumanía, por ahora, no tiene ese problema.

And Romania, for now, doesn't have that problem.

Tiene el problema contrario: demasiado poco turismo para la cantidad de cosas que ofrece.

It has the opposite problem: too little tourism for the amount it has to offer.

Pero si la moneda sigue cayendo y los precios siguen siendo atractivos, eso podría cambiar más rápido de lo que la infraestructura puede absorber.

But if the currency keeps falling and prices remain attractive, that could change faster than the infrastructure can absorb.

Which brings it back to the political situation, because stability matters for investment in that infrastructure.

Hotels, roads, airports.

You don't build those things if you don't believe the government will still be standing next year.

Y ese es el ciclo vicioso en el que Rumanía lleva décadas atrapada.

And that's the vicious cycle Romania has been trapped in for decades.

La inestabilidad política aleja la inversión.

Political instability drives away investment.

Sin inversión, el desarrollo turístico es lento.

Without investment, tourism development is slow.

Con un turismo menos desarrollado, el país depende más de otras industrias que son más vulnerables a los choques económicos.

With less developed tourism, the country depends more on other industries that are more vulnerable to economic shocks.

Y cuando hay un choque, la moneda cae.

And when there's a shock, the currency falls.

That's a bleak loop.

Though the EU membership should, in theory, provide some floor under the whole thing.

Debería, sí.

It should, yes.

Rumanía entró en la UE en 2007.

Romania joined the EU in 2007.

Pero no usa el euro todavía, lo cual es importante, porque significa que su moneda sigue siendo vulnerable a este tipo de crisis.

But it doesn't use the euro yet, which is important, because it means its currency is still vulnerable to this kind of crisis.

Si tuviera el euro, la política monetaria estaría fuera de sus manos, para bien y para mal.

If it had the euro, monetary policy would be out of its hands, for better and for worse.

For better and for worse.

That's the whole Greek argument from fifteen years ago, isn't it.

You can't devalue your way out of a crisis if your currency isn't yours.

Exactamente.

Exactly.

Y mientras tanto, el viajero que reserva un vuelo a Cluj o a Bucarest esta semana va a encontrar que sus euros o sus dólares llegan muy lejos.

And meanwhile, the traveler who books a flight to Cluj or Bucharest this week is going to find that their euros or dollars go very far.

Esa es la realidad del mundo, y Rumanía es un lugar que merece ser visto.

That's the reality of the world, and Romania is a place that deserves to be seen.

You said something a few minutes ago that stuck with me.

When you were talking about the cycle Romania's trapped in, you used the phrase «para bien y para mal.» Which is a fixed expression I keep hearing and I want to ask you about it, because I keep wanting to construct it differently and getting it wrong.

Sí, «para bien y para mal» es una expresión muy común.

Yes, «para bien y para mal» is a very common expression.

Significa literalmente «for good and for bad», pero en español la usamos de una manera más idiomática: para decir que algo tiene consecuencias positivas y negativas al mismo tiempo, que no puedes separar una de la otra.

It literally means 'for good and for bad', but in Spanish we use it in a more idiomatic way: to say that something has positive and negative consequences at the same time, that you can't separate one from the other.

And «para» here is doing something different from the «para» that means purpose or destination.

This is more like «in terms of» or «with respect to.»

Sí, esa distinción es importante.

Yes, that distinction is important.

Y hay otras expresiones con «para» que funcionan de manera parecida: «para siempre», «para empezar», «para colmo».

And there are other expressions with «para» that work in a similar way: «para siempre» (forever), «para empezar» (to begin with), «para colmo» (to top it all off).

Cada una usa «para» en un sentido un poco distinto.

Each uses «para» in a slightly different sense.

Aprenderlas como unidades fijas es más útil que intentar deducir la gramática cada vez.

Learning them as fixed units is more useful than trying to work out the grammar each time.

«Para colmo.» I know that one.

My son-in-law uses it constantly.

Usually when I've done something to the food.

¿Y todavía le pones hielo al vino cuando vas a Madrid?

And do you still put ice in your wine when you go to Madrid?

Porque «para colmo» es exactamente lo que diría yo si te viera hacerlo.

Because «para colmo» is exactly what I would say if I saw you doing that.

That is never going away, is it.