24 March 2009 | Romania no longer wants to be associated with spooky vampire Dracula. In a move against the myth, country's Tourism Minister announced his nation should aim at different, more positive image.

“In my capacity as minister, I do not agree to Dracula being Romania’s tourist brand,” Romanian Minister of Tourism Elena Udrea said, quoted by the Financiarul.ro news website. “Romania has lots of things that can be promoted as brands. I think it can be represented much better by many other things,” she added.

Although Udrea opposed the use of Dracula as the country’s chief tourist brand, however, she approved of its use as foreign tourists knew and recognised it.

“It is well known in Spain, in America, everywhere and it would be a pity not to use it when needed. In Romania they organize all kind of trips with foreign tourists that come to visit the Bran Castle, where they think, they are told, the Castle of Dracula is located, even if we know that Vlad the Impaler did not live there,” the Minister told the publication.

According to the official website of the Romanian National Tourist Office, “Count Dracula, a fictional character in the Dracula novel, was inspired by one of the best-known figures of the Romanian history — Vlad Dracula, nicknamed Vlad Tepes (‘Vlad the Impaler’) — who was a ruler of Wallachia (1456-1462).”

Although the website does not explicitly claim Vlad the Impaler lived in the Bran Castle, it noted that the site is often visited by tourists on Dracula Tours.

According to the site, other prominent locations related to Vlad Tepes frequented by tourists include the fourteenth-century town of Sighisoara – Vlad's birthplace, the Snagov Monastery “where, according to legend, Vlad is said to have been buried after his assassination,” the Poenari Fortress, the village of Arefu where many Dracula legends are still told, the city of Brasov where Vlad led raids against Saxon merchants and Curtea Domneasca – Dracula’s palace in Bucharest.

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