The Romanian Government has announced that a planned Dracula theme park will be built near Bucharest and not in the Prince of Darkness's native Transylvania. It took the decision on advice from international consultancy firm PriceWaterhouse Coopers who said that a site nearer the capital would attract more tourists. Conservationists had vigorously opposed original plans to build the theme park near the listed medieval town of Sighisoara where Vlad the Impaler, Dracula's prototype, had lived. An official from the Romanian tourism ministry said a new site would be chosen by March and was expected to open by the end of 2004. The government hopes the $30m theme park will create 3,000 jobs and inject new blood, so to speak, into Romania's tourism industry. A site near Bucharest would draw more than 1 m tourists a year compared to 600,000 visitors for one built in Sighisoara, the consultants said.

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