Minister of Regional Development and Tourism Elena Udrea attended the opening of the ski area located in the Poiana Brasov mountain resort (central Romania), the largest tourism investment made in the past 20 years.

"I am glad to attend this opening ceremony, because for 20 years now no public investments have been made in Romania's tourism infrastructure. This is the first major investment in a ski area, but others are also underway in the Valley Jiu, where we are developing some important ski resorts at Straja, Lupeni, Vulcan, Petrosani, Parang; in the Vidra resort we are also building from scratch a ski area with 9 km of slopes and 4 kilometers of cable transport facilities,' Udrea said.

According to Minister Udrea, as a result of the steady promotion of Romania as a tourist destination and thanks to investments in the sector's infrastructure, the Romanian tourism is getting ''on the right track.''

"We have 17 pct growth in tourism in 2011 compared to 2010 and if we keep the pace of all that we have initiated with promotion, investments, partnerships with the local public authorities and with the government paying special attention to this sector, but also with support from the Romanian Olympic Committee for the Romanian sports movement, I am confident that from now on we will speak of growth in tourist numbers and in revenues in the tourism sector," said Elena Udrea.

Following the inauguration of the upgraded ski area, the Poiana Brasov skiable area increased by 50 hectares to 85 hectares.

Thanks to the modernization of the slopes and the installation of artificial snow machines, the ski season can now be extended to four months a year.

A reservoir was built on the Ruia plateau, at an altitude of 1,490 m, spreading on an area of 1.4 hectares and 15 m deep, for the production of artificial snow; the reservoir can store 140,000 cubic meters of water.

The investment cost 25 million euros plus VAT, in money made available by the Ministry of Tourism.