Romanian rural tourism development a case study: rural tourism in Maramures

International Journal of Business Research, July, 2007 by Adina L. Negrusa, Smaranda A. Cosma, Marius Bota

TABLE NO.1. THE EVOLUTION OF RURAL TOURISM BOARDING HOUSES

Year                  1996    1997    1998    1999    2000

Total number of       2965    3049    3127    3250    3121
  units in tourism
Rural tourism           61     159     213     341     240
  boarding houses
%                     2.05    5.21    6.81   10.49    7.69

Year                  2001    2002    2003    2004

Total number of       3266    3338    3569    3900
  units in tourism
Rural tourism          343     461     718     892
  boarding houses
%                     10.5    13.8   20.11   22.87

Source: Romanian Statistical Yearbook 2005.

TABLE NO.2. INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL ANALYSIS

Strategic internal factors           External strategic factors

Strengths                            Opportunities

[check] the natural landscape;       [check] the involvement of
being a mountain region Maramures    Romanian authorities in the
can welcome tourists during all      development of new forms of
seasons;                             tourism (especially the rural
                                     tourism and agro tourism);

[check] the wooden churches and      [check] the access to various
the particular architecture of       new financing sources, including
the houses;                          European Community programs and
                                     grants;
[check] the traditions, customs,
rituals and the traditional
costumes;

[check] various points of            [check] the first steps for the
interest for tourists;               infrastructure modernization;

[check] the local authorities are    [check] the presence of some
more involved in developing at       web-sites about Maramures;
least the concept of rural

tourism (Turnock D. 2002);

[check] the traditional              [check] the presence of web-sites
hospitality spirit of the            offering tourist tours of
local people;                        Maramures;

[check] the traditional cuisine;     [check] the projects coordinated
                                     by Romanian Ministry of Tourism
[check] the historical Maramures     to include Romania on
and its traditions.                  international tour-operators
                                     offers.

Weaknesses                           Threats

[check] it is a little bit           [check] the confusion which still
difficult, for foreign tourists,     exists between rural tourism,
to reach the historical              agro tourism, natural tourism,
Maramures;                           ecotourism and cultural tourism;

[check] the roads and railways       [check] Romanian has a high
are under the European standards;    taxation level for small and
                                     medium enterprises or for
[check] the number of hotels is      individual entrepreneurs;
small and they can be found only
in towns;
                                     [check] the lack of coherent
[check] lodging conditions           laws regarding tourism;
are--sometimes--under European
standards;                           [check] powerless professional
                                     associations;
[check] the difficulty to
evaluate the lodging offer;          [check] the difficulty to obtain
                                     loans from banks for investments;

[check] the difficulty to            [check] the low purchase power of
evaluate the potential demand;       Romanian tourists;

[check] the lack of knowledge        [check] the foreign tourist lack
among the local people to get        of interest;
advantage of the full tourist
potential of Maramures;              [check] small advertising budgets
                                     and the inappropriate use of
[check] the lack of specialists      money for rural and ecotourism
(such as employees/consultants)      products promotion among foreign
for implementing of marketing        tourists.
and sales techniques.

FIGURE NO.1. THE CAPACITY EVOLUTION OF RURAL PENSIONS (NO. OF PLACES)

        no. places    no. places/unit

1996       332              5.4
1997       783              4.9
1998       1003             4.7
1999       1643             4.8
2000       1729             7.2
2001       2560            4.46
2002       3623            7.86
2003       7510           10.45
2004       9405           10.5

Source: Romanian Statistical Yearbook 2005.

Note: Table made from bar graph.

Note: Table made from line graph.