Abstract
Sustainability has become a priority in the last decades. If we consider rural regions, agritourism, an activity strongly related to local communities, represents an opportunity to ensure the sustainability of rural settlements and of the environment, and at the same time an innovative and diversifying possibility for the economic support of rural settlements. Many studies have shown that the sustainability trend of the current period can be achieved by combining rural and local resources and traditional products specific to the rural regions with tourist activities, the challenge being the revitalization of rural economy. A large number of Romanian mountain rural regions can provide opportunities for sustaining agritourism activity; some of them may succeed to capitalize on the niche characteristic of agritourism, and through appropriate and effective strategies to move from the pioneering stage to an economically and socially valuable chance for improving the living conditions from rural area and finally to ensure sustainable development of rural communities. This paper begins from the importance of agritourism for rural regions. It aims at identifying the current situation of the agritourism activity in three regions and at developing proposals that are based strictly on the specific needs of the regions. In our opinion, the implementation of these specific actions would represent future challenges and at the same time ways of supporting the sustainable development of agritourism activities and of local settlements.
Highlights
The accommodation of tourists in rural regions is not a recent phenomenon, as it has been practiced for decades in European Union countries [1,2]
Identifying the characteristics of the respondents, owners of agritourism structures; Identifying aspects related to the knowledge of the essential characteristics of agritourism activity and the existence/non-existence of specialized training among the owners of agritourism structures; Identifying aspects related to the favorability of the regions for agritourism activities, through the access and tourism infrastructures, and at the same time the identification of some restrictive factors that have slowed the development of the activity so far; Identifying aspects related to the extent to which agritourism represented an opportunity for economic growth and development of their personal guesthouses/farms by capitalizing on the products/crafts/services in terms of the tourist product, and identifying the resources of the region/personal guesthouse they have for the carrying out the agritourism activity
The research aimed at the beginning towards the identification and summary of the main initiatives and challenges undertaken for Romanian agritourism development (Table 2)
Summary
The accommodation of tourists in rural regions is not a recent phenomenon, as it has been practiced for decades in European Union countries [1,2]. Identifying Aspects Rlated to the Involvement of the Local Community Authorities in Supporting Agritourism Activities and the Willingness of the Owners of Agritourism Structures to Cooperate with Authorities and Other Entities, in order to Identify the Possible Actions/Measures for Efficient Sustainable Development of Agritourism Activities. 100% of the respondents expressed their availability and willingness to collaborate with the local community authorities Those questioned were those who identified the possible actions/measures for the efficient development of their agritourism activity. It is true that tourist activity, in general, does not always mean sustainability for a region, as it could sometimes cause damage to the environment, but as agritourism is concerned, it promotes the idea of combining the economic interests with the sustainable development of communities, and with the conservation of nature. Starting from the consideration that sustainability encourages those actions that support the economic purposes of rural settlements, but with a strong emphasis on harmonious environmental principles, we can state, with the help of other specialists [28,29,30,41,42,43,44,45,46], that agritourism is, in our times, a chance perhaps to ensure both economic development of rural settlements and the “health” of the environment, in other words to achieve the sustainability of rural regions
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