Moldovan private company launches tourist map Discover Chisinau 2017

Chisinau, 15 August /MOLDPRES/ – The tourist map of the Moldovan capital, Descopera Chisinaul 2017 (Discover Chisinau 2017), which has appeared recently, presents over 130 tourist attractions. The publication was developed at the initiative of societal research and economic analyzes iData (Data Inteligente SRL), and then became an independent project under the aegis of iMaps.

At a press conference today, the iMaps manager (Imaps Expert SRL), Veronica Ates, mentioned that the aim of the publication was to identify several tourist attractions in Chisinau city, including some less known and to make them familiar to the inhabitants of the capital and tourists.

"Previously, the authors of the publication often confronted the situation when foreign tourists said that there were no places to visit in Chisinau, although in reality the problem has consisted in their poor promotion or the total lack of promotion. The authors of the publication intended to gather a list of 100 tourist attractions in Chisinau and during the 12 months, the number of attractions of the map exceeded this figure significantly," said Veronica Ates.

According to the cited source, iData conducted two studies to identify the tourist attractions and to understand their knowledge of Chisinau inhabitants and their level of attractiveness. Thus, in November 2016, 30 independent experts were interviewed, which allowed additional identification of new tourist attractions, the validation of the list elaborated up to that point, and establishment of a certain rating among all the attractions, according to two criteria: knowledge and the importance of attractions.

In April 2017, iData organized a QuickPoll (a very limited survey with an acceptable error), the purpose of which was to find out from the city's population: what tourist attractions by categories they would recommends to tourists and where the children preferred to spend their free time. These two researches, as well as the effort of the iData team, allowed the crystallization of a wide and diverse list of Chisinau tourist attractions.

In the context, iMaps senior manager, iData executive director, Mihai Bologan, co-author of the map, said that the innovative aspect of it was the way of representing the city and the tourist attractions.

"The map was drawn from scratch and contains more creative elements. Everything we present today is unique. It is the first map that includes the trolleybus route № 30, arriving at the airport. For many sights we have created some symbolic figures. For Zimbru stadium, which is a visiting city card, we created a special area. We included historic buildings, museums, theatres, monuments, Pedestrian Street, circus, hippodrome, and so on. We decided to present it separately in the Valea Morilor Park with the Cascade staircase. In total, we stylized 23 tourist attractions, which seemed new to us. However, we indicated 131 tourist attractions," said Mihai Bologan.

The authors of Discover Chisinau 2017 project said that map could be renewed from year to year. It appeared in a circulation of 30,000 copies and has the size of 35x35 cm. The map can be purchased in kiosks and hotel complexes.

(Reporter N. Roibu, editor M. Jantovan)