RESEARCH REGARDING THE IMPLEMENTATION, DEVELOPMENT AND IMPACT OF AGRITOURISM ON ROMANIA'S RURAL AREAS BETWEEN 1990 AND 2015

Abstract

Based on more than 25 years of research in the field of agritourism, the current work represents a pertinent, realistic and critical analysis of the main factors favourable to the implementation and development of agritourism and rural tourism in Romania. Firstly, we examined the main natural and anthropic tourist resources which constitute the country s tourist treasures, and we concluded that Romania has rich, varied and attractive tourist resources that have not been fully exploited and promoted so far. Secondly, we carried out an evaluation of Romania s implicit agritourist and tourist potential, as a future tourist destination, based on all its tourist resources and on 12 evaluation criteria. The results have shown that quality-wise, the value is high to very high, leading to the idea that Romania may satisfy to a large extent the potential clients numerous expectations and requirements. Lastly, we carried out a SWOT analysis regarding the level of implementation, development and impact of agritourism on the Romanian rural areas during the researched period. The aforementioned SWOT analysis led to a very clear and precise conclusion. Agritourism activity, in the areas where it was implemented and developed, had a very strong and favourable impact not only on the economic and tourist framework of localities, but also on their social, cultural, spiritual and even ecological framework.