Harghita County Municipality supports the Prajd wellness center by purchasing entrance tickets after the number of tourists decreased

The Harghita County Government announced on Wednesday that it had purchased entrance tickets worth 100,000 lei (7.67 million forints) to the Praid wellness center, in order to help boost tourism, which has declined since the salt mine was flooded.

According to a statement sent to MTI, the spa complex cannot benefit from the Romanian state support for small and medium-sized enterprises that make a living from tourism, so it turned to the county government for help. The latter announced that it would purchase entrance tickets to the facility worth 100,000 lei through the Harghita Community Development Association (Visit Harghita) from the 190,000 lei (14.58 million forints) collected during a fundraising campaign announced in June.

The situation of tourism in Prajd was also discussed at the Regional Tourism Conference that began in Csíkszereda on Wednesday, in which several entrepreneurs from Prajd participated. György Nagy, president of the Association of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises of Udvarhelyszék, pointed out, according to the Agerpres report, that the mine disaster is having its negative effects in several settlements in the region, so not only Prajd should be supported. He said that the Prajd salt mine was visited by 600 thousand tourists annually. They stayed not only in Prajd, but also in neighboring settlements, so the support mechanism should be extended to them as well, he said.

László Moldován, president of the Sóvidék-Hegyalja Tourist Association, told the Maszol news portal that tourist traffic in Prajd fell by 80 percent during the summer high season. He said that there are 119 certified accommodations in the village, which can accommodate about 800 tourists at a time, but in reality the number of places available is significantly higher, around 1,600.