Dracula Tourism Throughout Romania

Transylvania is well known throughout the world as being the home to Bram Stoker's infamous character Count Dracula.  However, to many people's surprise the home of the vampire prince has a mostly fictional background.  Looking for Dracula's castle and the site of his town can be difficult because it has been created from the author's imagination.  With this creation of Dracula Romania had to play their cards right to ensure that the tourism that followed the novel was also met with historical accuracy. 

The Beginning of Tourist Frenzy

A propaganda book created to help further tourism to Transylvania (6).

Bram Stoker's Dracula was published in 1897, but didn't make its way to Romania until 1990 (5).  This fact alone caused issues with the Romania government and the portrayal of Dracula and the Transylvania where he lived.  Romania at the time was a communist nation that wanted to promote themselves as independent.  Dracula's role in their society caused great strife in the community.  The work of supernatural entities compared with the science of the time was a problem for the Romanian government.  They were trying to present themselves as a modern industrialized country, while Stoker had portrayed them to be a sinister and backwards living space for an evil vampire (5).  Going further into this, Dracula, who was the villain of the novel, was now seen as the national hero.  In this communist society having a national hero be not only a fictitious supernatural being, but also a villain caused issues for the governments continued goal to be seen as a new and modern society (2).

Transylvania saw tourist come from all over the Western world to witness the supernatural that was found within Stoker's novel.  The Romanian government saw numbers of tourism increase from 5,000 in 1956 to 103,000 in 1960 (5).  When the tourism began to visit the home of Count Dracula many travelers were disappointed after leaving the country.  They were expecting to see the Count himself and visit his sinister home.   To further the confusion, the residents of Transylvania new nothing of vampires or Castle Dracula (5).  This caused the country's image in the modern world to be at risk to reverting to old customs and putting all of their hard work behind them.  To help draw the line between fact and fiction Dracula: Legend and Truth was published.  This differentiated between the novels evil Count and the history of Romania.  The ministry did not do much to stop the Dracula craze, but  they were not encouraging or promoting Dracula (5).

The Growth of the Count

Through the new wave of tourism in Romania many wealthy philanthropists were looking for waves to market the idea of Dracula.  Alexandru Misiuga, who was the head of Bistrita's tourist office, saw the chance that Romania had to gain more revenue from Dracula fans.  He created a hotel named, The Golden Crown, to mimic where Jonathan Harker stayed when he came to Bistrita (5). He also formed another hotel that would serve as the location of Castle Dracula.  At the time of communism he could not name it after the Count, so instead it was called Hotel Tihuta.  After the fall of the communist state it was renamed Hotel Castel Dracula (5). 

The interest of Dracula comes from outside of Romania, which made the tourism geared more towards a Western cultural background (2).  From the new wave of tourism many of the tours focused on the historical facts of the country, rather than the fictional influence that Stoker gave the nation.  The strongest amount of tourism was derived from real places and imagined life.  Vlad III was was real ruler in Romania but was also seen as the basis for Dracula (2).  This was also the case with Bran Castle, which is now known as Dracula's Castle.  There is no evidence that Stoker knew about Bran, but because this is the only historical landmark that compares to Castle Dracula tourists began to come and visit (2).  Many were disappointed after leaving the castle because it was focusing on the historical truth of the castle rather than what the novel portrayed. 

Castle Dracula

Bran Castle sits in between the mountains just as Dracula's Castle was described in the novel.

As stated above Castle Dracula does not exist in the world of reality, but instead Bran Castle has become an adaption of this mysterious fortress.  The government decided on this castle as the one be the trademark for all things Dracula.  It's gothic look and the position it held between Transylvania and Walachia served as the perfect place to house the legend of the vampire king (1).  This again makes the connection between real places and imagined life.  Stoker never visited Transylvania but it has eerily similar traits of Bran Castle (3).  The connection between the castle and Dracula continue because of the comparison to Vlad the Impaler.  It is not known whether Vlad captured Bran Castle or if he was a prisoner insides its walls (3).  This however furthers the notion of tourists believing that Bran Castle was home to Dracula (who again was often compared to Vlad).  Another connection between Bran and Dracula is the myths of the townspeople that live below the castle.  There was a legend that ghosts would haunt the the people during the night, but during the day they would walk with the rest of the people without being noticed (3).  This was then the basis for Dracula's character and gave the town and Bran Castle a bigger symbol of Count Dracula. 

Works Cited

1.) Alipio, Amy. “Inside the Fortress Known as 'Dracula's Castle'.” Visit 'Dracula's Castle' in Transylvania, Romania, 28 Sept. 2018, www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/destinations/europe/romania/dracula-castle-things-to-do-brasov-transylvania/.

2.) CANDREA, Adina Nicoleta, et al. "Marketing the Count's Way: How Dracula's Myth Can Revive Romanian Tourism." Bulletin of the Transilvania  University of Brasov. Series V: Economic Sciences, vol. 9, no. 1, Jan. 2016, pp/ 81-90. EBSCOhost, proxy-bloomu-klnpa.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=bth&AN=121777847&site=eds-live&scope=site.

3.) “Count Dracula // The Myth.” Dracula - Bran Castle, www.bran-castle.com/dracula.html.

4.) “Dracula's Castle Full-Day Tour from Bucharest.” GetYourGuide, www.getyourguide.com/bucharest-l111/excursion-to-dracula-s-castle-with-lunch-included-t24039/.

5.) Light, Duncan. "Romania's Problem with Dracula." History Today, vol. 67, no. 5, May 2017, pp. 

62-65. EBSCOhost, proxy-bloomu.klnpa.org/login?

url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=30h&AN=122332425&site=eds-live&scope=site.

6.) Moon, Jim. “GREAT GHOSTS OF THE SHELVES #24 - The Tourist's Guide to Transylvania: A Traveller's Handbook of Count Dracula's Kingdom.” Hypnogoria, 1 Jan. 1970, hypnogoria.blogspot.com/2016/06/great-ghosts-of-shelves-24-tourists.html.