Johans Green Mountain

Innovative touristic products active incoming tourism

Johans Green Mountain

Johans Green Mountain: With the donkey around Apuseni Mountains

Location
The touristic activities offered by the
company are deployed in the
following geographical areas: Gilu
Mountains, Apuseni Mountains,
Arieului Valley, Maramure,
Bucovina, Sibiu area (Saxon Villages)
and Bran - Braov area (Southern
Carpathians).

Description
The innovating elements present in
the touristic products promoted by
Johans Green Mountain are
represented by the uniqueness and
originality of combining different
types of attractions in the rural area,
by their deployment and by the
diversity of the types of activities that
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can be performed by tourists. Each

detail has been elaborated and
planned with great care, so as to offer
tourists a real experience in the heart
of nature and among the people from
Romanian villages.
The touristic offer includes active
mountain trips in spring, summer and
autumn providing, as the name also
implies, Holidays in Johans Green
Mountain. The offer is targeted
exclusively at foreign tourists being
specially tailored to address and meet
their specific needs.
The tourist has the possibility to opt
for backpack or off-road guided tours
(with a guide) or individual tours
(without a guide), having at hand all
the information and resources that

they would need in order to reach

their destination safely, all these being
provided by the company. From a
transportation point of view, some
tracks involve walks in the heart of
nature, other are done on horses, by
bike or by using off-road vehicles.
As follows we will describe illustrative
touristic products that involve
activities in the Cluj County. The
touristic offer includes active allinclusive mountain backpacking
activities: transfers from the airport or
railway station to the
boarding/guesthouse, luggage
transport, guide for the guided tours,
track descriptions for the individual
tours without a guide, etc.
1. Backpacking tours on mules
(without a guide)
The backpacking tours through the
Apuseni Mountains with mules
represent the main product, being the
most sought after touristic product
that the company offers. It targets
families in particular, as the children
love this type of backpacking activity.
The luggage is carried by mules, the
company providing a mule for each
adult in the group. In the first day of
the trip (in Rca village situated at
approximately 46 km from ClujNapoca, at an altitude of 1000 meters)
the tourists are instructed how to
behave with the mules and how to
deposit their luggage in the specially
designed wooden holders.
Additionally, they receive a couple of
essential information about the areas
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they are going to visit, about the trail

they have to follow, and also
information related to the economic,
cultural and social particularities of
the area which they visit.
The tourists can choose between four
different types of programs on the
mule trips: a 7 day programme
Someul Cald track, 9 day one Vlul
Miresei track or a 15 days track
Mountain Trail, and beginning with
2011 they can also choose The Family
Trail, lasting 15 days. During their trip
the tourists will be able to enjoy the
beauty of the scenery and the
particularities of Romanian villages,
they will experiment the life in rural
farms and will visit Someului Cald
Valley, Fntnele Lake, Stanciului
Valley and the Vlul Miresei Fall.
2. Backpacking tours in Gilu and
Vldeasa Mountains (without a guide)
The touristic product involves a
backpack tour of 11 days, Rca being
the starting and ending point. The
tourists receive all the needed
information and materials (map,
description of the marked trail and
additional information about the
areas that will be visited and their
touristic relevance, GPS or GPS
tracks).
The company makes sure that in the
evening, when they arrive at
destination, their baggage is already
at the boarding/guest house, and the
hosts will wait for them with

traditional food and beverages,

cooked with ingredients from their
own household. The second day
morning, after a healthy, generous
breakfast, the tourists are helped in
preparing takeaway food for lunch,
which they will take with them on that
days tour.

in Stana (situated at approximately 50

km from Cluj-Napoca), where on the
first day, the tourists are instructed
how to behave with horses. At the
same time, the horses are selected for
each rider based on the horses
temperament, and the riders weight
and character.

During the trip, tourists can enjoy

admiring authentic Romanian villages
and natural and pastoral scenery of
rare beauty (especially in the Apuseni
Natural Park), they can observe the
traditions and customs of both
Romanians and Hungarians, they can
visit hundreds of years old wooden
churches (Romanian and Hungarian)
and last but not least, they can benefit
from the well known hospitality of the
hosts in the boarding houses where
they will be lodged. On the track they
will see the Someului Cald Valley, the
piua (mill machine) in Ruseti, the
log cabins in Mriel, Horea glade,
Padi Natural Reserve, Scrioara
Cave, Fntnele Lake, Vlul Miresii Fall
in Rchiele, the reformed fortified
church of Vleni (12th century), the
fortified Church of Mnstireni and
the wooden (Orthodox) church of Bica
(17th century) which has a very
beautiful fresco painted on the
interior walls.

The chosen trails follow scenery that

offers an open and as large as possible
panorama, where tourists can meet a
lot of sheep herds, small forest clumps
where they can enjoy the winds
breezes, near rivers where horses
drink freely. There also are rural roads
where they can interact freely with
local people or they can observe them
working the fields. It is well
understood that the tracks are not
missing cultural tourist attractions
that the tourists also visit in the other
tracks promoted by the company.

3. Riding tours (with a guide)

The riding tours include two
programmes: a 6 day one, the Clata
Track, and an 11 day one, The
Mountain Trail (in the Apuseni
Mountains). Both tracks start and end
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Source
The touristic packages designed for
active tourism were created by the
Belgian entrepreneur Johan Pyfferoen,
who had already had a rich experience
in the Belgian tourism field. The idea
was born from his desire to provide
tourists that love nature and culture
with the possibility of discovering
something new with each step while
staying as long as they can in the heart
of nature. The implementation of this
idea has been made possible by the
discovery of the touristic potential of
the Apuseni Mountains in the rural
areas of Cluj County, an area with
natural, social and cultural elements

 Johans Green Mountain

pag. 87 IART Territories

yet unspoiled by the passing of time.

The success of Johan Pyfferoens
novel active tourism idea was possible
because he had good knowledge of
the demands of Western Europes
tourist market; he has also spotted
right from the start the potential but
also the limitations that an offer has in
the Romanian rural tourism and the
way in which all of these can create
success outside the country.
The purpose: to elicit interest and
satisfy foreign tourists expectations
through personalised offers, guided by
the fact that each tourist is unique
therefore she/he needs an offer which
is perfectly adapted to her/ his
expectations for an ideal holiday.
Year by year, Johan, a nature lover,
together with Aurora Pyfferoen who
knew the local culture, traditions,
local legends and stories, have
developed this novel active tourism
offer for holidays at Green Mountain.
Beginning with 2011, in Johans
memory, holidays at Green Mountain
bear his name.
Collaborations with other firms
In order to carry out their activity in
optimal conditions, the company
collaborates with boarding houses
from the rural area, with specialized
guides and with tourism agencies
(from abroad). This collaboration
allows the company to continuously
offer personalized services, with a
high standard of quality.
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Results obtained
The professionalism and seriousness
with which their clients have been
treated and the quality of service has
enabled the holiday offer to attract
tourists from Europe, USA, Australia
and Asia.
Moreover, due to the willingness of
the company to adapt the tracks to
the needs of the customer, some
customers have returned to the
visited areas more years in a row (for
example a family asked for their
services 6 years in a row).
The positive reviews and the
recommendations received from
clients have made Johans offer of
Green Mountain Holidays to be
mentioned in international travel
guides, such as Lonely Planet Travel
Guides, The Rough Guide to Romania
and Bradt Travel Guides.
Lessons learned
The success in performing active
tourism activities is given by the
personalisation of services and
developing a good relationship with
people (both tourists and
collaborators). Orientating towards
small tourist groups, for which
personalized packages adapted to
their needs are developed and
offering them the possibility of
permanently interacting with the local
people, ensures a high degree of
satisfaction for the tourist, making
them feel the realities of the

Romanian rural environment in the

true sense of the word.
Consolidating the relations with the
partners (especially with the lodging
units and the tourism agencies from
Europe) and reciprocal respect of the
engagements has constituted an
essential support for ensuring and
maintaining of a high quality level of
the services.
Aiming towards the specific needs of
foreign tourists has allowed the
company and its collaborators to
identify in a timely manner the
tourists needs and to promptly
answer them. Additionally, these
observations have represented the
source for updating the provided
services.
Implementing technical solutions
leads to easing the process of
delivering the touristic activities and

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to increasing the tourists level of

security. For example, the tracks that
the company is promoting are GPS
mapped, and beginning with 2011 the
tourists receive a GPS that helps them
reach their destination.
Contact details
Name: Pyfferoen Aurora
Telephone: 004.0744.200.875;
004.0744.637.227
Company: Johans Green Mountain
City: Cluj-Napoca, Cometei Street, no.
35 A
E-mail: office@greenmountain.ro
Website:
www.greenmountain.ro
IART Territories page:
http://www.iartterritories.com/en/co
mpanies/romania/johans-greenmountain/id/61