Rural Tourism in the Romanian Carpathians
Rural Tourism in the Romanian Carpathians

Summary/Abstract: Rural tourism in Romania, which is based on a great number of natural and anthropogenic attractions, is considered to be a relatively new, but also an older practice at the same time. Tourism, as a form of activity that takes place in the rural areas of Carpathians in Romania, even though it started to be practiced in the last decades, became more and more popular after the 90s. The great tourism potential in the Romanian countryside brought into attention the positive economic changes that can occur in rural spaces with the practice of rural/agri-tourism. The main purpose of this study is to analyze both the evolution and the current state of rural tourism in the Carpathian area of Romania, in view of the well known fact that the Carpathians constitute the richest land space for tourist attractions in our country. Additionally, our aim is to reveal mainly those activities specific to mountain settlements that play a major role in the sustainable development of rural tourism. This research is both quantitative and qualitative in its structure and, despite the existence of poor statistical database in this field, some data regarding the tourism phenomenon in the mountain area have been provided by The National Institute of Statistics in Romania. In order to enrich our study, the following qualitative analysis completed the first one through online and field research carried out in different areas. Overall, the study will function to reveal the importance of finding out those activities appropriate for each rural destination in the Romanian Carpathians, the necessity for investment in both tourist infrastructure and service improvement, and also the decisive role that plans and strategies, both local and national, can have for sustainable tourism development.

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