Abstract
As a country, Romania tries to communicate abroad its authenticity, intact nature and unique cultural heritage. This message matches perfectly the main attributes associated to Rodna Mountains National Park, as it is the second national park in Romanian. The aim of the research is to identify and analyze the prospects for sustainable development of rural tourism in the area of Rodna Mountains National Park, taking into account its impact on the social and economic life of the inhabitants of the Rodna commune, but also factors that may positively or negatively influence the whole process. From a methodological perspective, quantitative methods were used; a survey-based research was carried out among Romanian mountain tourists, aiming at identifying and analyzing their opinions and suggestions regarding tourism in protected areas in Romania, as well as the impact of the tourist flows generated by the Park upon the surrounding communities. Rodna Mountains National Park seems to be among the favorite destinations of tourists, as the respondents have a good and very good general impression about the interaction with the mountain and protected areas, prefer internal to external destinations regardless of the season, budgets allocated per night, per stay and annually are quite high, so the purchasing power is also high; they constitute a solid foundation for the decisions of the tourist development of the area. The need for holidays and the savings that tourists make throughout the year to go on vacation, regardless of income level, give viability to this opportunity. Other results of this research are related to the problems tourists helped to identify and the solutions they proposed.
Highlights
Most research studies targeting Romania’s foreign visitors originating from the country’s identified target markets, with the purpose of better understanding the reasons why they pick Romania’s destinations, have led to the identification of the key attributes of the national tourist brand Explore the Carpathian Garden!: intact nature; authenticity; unique culture; and safety
The differentiation elements of Romania as opposed to other destinations are linked to the intact nature, the unique cultural heritage, and the authentic rural lifestyle
Romanian tourists mainly opt for domestic destinations (Chart 1) during the warm season (92 of 131), followed by domestic, national destinations in the cold season (63), respectively by the external, foreign destinations during the summer season (56) and in the cold one (15)
Summary
Most research studies targeting Romania’s foreign visitors originating from the country’s identified target markets, with the purpose of better understanding the reasons why they pick Romania’s destinations, have led to the identification of the key attributes of the national tourist brand Explore the Carpathian Garden!: intact nature; authenticity; unique culture; and safety. The differentiation elements of Romania as opposed to other destinations are linked to the intact nature, the unique cultural heritage, and the authentic rural lifestyle. Authorities try to communicate abroad that Romania “is an authentic country, with intact nature and with a unique cultural heritage”. This message matches perfectly the main attributes associated with the destination by foreign tourists who have visited the destination or who know persons who have visited it: authentic, rural, hospitality and green [1,2,3]
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