German investor Jonas Sch\u00e4fer has developed the Valea Verde agritourism complex in the village of Cund, Mure\u0219 County, a sustainable business model that directly supports the local community. Initiated in 2007 through the restoration of an abandoned Saxon house, the project has grown significantly, currently offering permanent jobs for a significant part of the local population and attracting a high percentage of international tourists.<\/p>\n
According to details provided by Jonas Sch\u00e4fer in an interview, the Valea Verde complex currently comprises 92 houses, a restaurant, a garden, an organic swimming lake, and a beach club. The business has a major social impact on the village of Cund (which has a population of 140 inhabitants) and the neighboring village of Gogan, currently employing 32 people on payroll with active employment contracts throughout the year. The founders, permanently settled in Romania since 2003, also managed King Charles’s properties in the region for two years before the pandemic.<\/p>\n
Regarding the customer structure, it has stabilized at a ratio of 60% foreign tourists (especially from Germany and the United Kingdom) and 40% Romanian tourists. Sch\u00e4fer highlighted that, in addition to the historical challenges of defining a rural tourism concept at a time when it barely existed in 2007\u2014overcome through collaboration with partners in Viscri and Breb\u2014the business was recently affected by the pandemic and the proximity of the conflict in Ukraine, which influences foreign tourists’ decisions to visit the region. Furthermore, the entrepreneur pointed out the lack of a coherent government strategy and promotion budgets for Romanian tourism, highlighting the essential role of local public-private initiatives, such as the Visit Mure\u0219 association.<\/p>\n
What is Valea Verde and where is it located?<\/strong><\/p>\n Valea Verde is a sustainable agritourism complex located in the village of Cund, Mure\u0219 County, Romania, developed by German investor Jonas Sch\u00e4fer.<\/p>\n How does Valea Verde impact the local community?<\/strong><\/p>\n The complex employs 32 permanent staff from Cund and the neighboring village of Gogan, providing vital year-round jobs in a village of just 140 residents.<\/p>\n What challenges does rural tourism in Romania face according to the founder?<\/strong><\/p>\n Key challenges include the lack of a coherent government strategy and promotion budgets, alongside external factors like the pandemic and regional geopolitical tensions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" German investor Jonas Sch\u00e4fer has developed the Valea Verde agritourism complex in the village of Cund, Mure\u0219 County, a sustainable business model that directly supports the local community. Initiated in 2007 through the restoration of an abandoned Saxon house, the project has grown significantly, currently offering permanent jobs for a significant part of the local…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":126901,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2853],"tags":[3941],"thb-sponsors":[],"class_list":["post-126934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investment","tag-mures-en"],"article_style_override":"on","post-style":"style2","post_via":[{"title":"catavencii.ro | 20.06","post_source_url":"https:\/\/www.catavencii.ro"}],"post-top-image":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/investitii-3.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126934"},{"taxonomy":"thb-sponsors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thb-sponsors?post=126934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}