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978 1 8471 8268 5 Sample PDF
978 1 8471 8268 5 Sample PDF
By
Copyright 2007 by Cornelia Pop, Smaranda Cosma, Adina Negrusa, Claudiu Ionescu and Nicolae
Marinescu
All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.
Acknowledgements.............................................................................................ix
Introduction..........................................................................................................x
I General facts.............................................................................134
II The city of Brasov ....................................................................145
III The hotel market in Brasov ......................................................150
IV The city of Timisoara ...............................................................165
V The hotel market in Timisoara..................................................170
VI The city of Cluj-Napoca ...........................................................186
VII The hotel market in Cluj-Napoca .............................................191
VIII Comparative aspects.................................................................208
Contributors .....................................................................................................283
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The present study is based on the results generated by two research grants
financed by CNCSIS (Romanian National University Research Council):
1. The A grant between 2002 and 2004: The relationship between the
hotel industry and the financial markets, director: Professor Cornelia
Pop, PhD
2. The At grant between 2006 and 2007: Research study regarding the
tourism potential of Cluj-Napoca to enhance its identity in the context
of Romanias accession to the European Union, director: Associate
Professor Smaranda Cosma, PhD
The authors would like to thanks Romanian National Authority for Tourism and
Romanian National Institute for Statistics for their support.
INTRODUCTION
Finally chapter 4 closes the book by presenting the authors systematic and
detailed analysis on Romanias future as a tourist destination. And best of all,
the most recent fact from 2007 is employed in the chapter to provide the latest
and most updated perspective of tourism business for Romania, which is the aim
of this book in the very first place.
Romanians 89.5%
Hungarians 6.6%
Roma 2.5%
Germans 0.3%
Ukrainians 0.3%
Russians 0.2%
Turks 0.2%
Tartars, Serbs and Slovaks 0.3%
Other minorities 0.1%
Source: www.recensamant.ro/fisiere/Analiza%20date%20prelim.doc
1
This structure resulted from the 2002 Romanian population census.
Romania as a Tourist Destination and the Romanian Hotel Industry 3
Ecotourism
The potential of ecotourism is shown by the fact that 8.5% of the
countrys surface is protected in various ways through (NIS 2005):
- 3 Biosphere Reservation: the Danube Delta; Retezat mountain area,
and Rodna mountain area;
- 26 national and natural parks;
- 55 scientific reservations;
- 851 other natural reservations and protected natural areas.
Aqua tourism
The Danube Delta
In 1971, the Danube Delta was declared a Biosphere Reserve by
UNESCO and is one of the most important areas included in the Convention of
Wetlands signed at Ramsar, Iran.
Being the third largest Delta in Europe, the Danube Delta hosts 98% of
the European aquatic fauna. The Danube Delta covers a territory of 3,446 km2
(1,610 square miles). Hosting more than 3,400 bird species, some of them
unique in the world, the Danube Delta can be considered the European birds
paradise.
Business tourism
Since 1995, when economic reforms accelerated, business tourism
became an important segment of the tourism offerings. Bucharest and important
cities like Timisoara, Cluj, and Iasi witnessed an important growth in the
6 Chapter One Part I
14000
Graphic no.1 total
Evolution of tourist arrivals in Romanian foreign tourists
12000
accommodation establishments
12297
source: NIS
10000
9603
(thousans)
8000
8015
7566
7005
7070
6000
6595
6146
5727
5639
5805
5552
5109
4920
5057
4875
4847
4000
1432
1430
1359
1294
1185
1105
2000
999
915
867
848
856
833
810
795
766
762
0
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Romania as a Tourist Destination and the Romanian Hotel Industry 7
160000
Romania
Graphic no.2
France
140000 Spain
Total arrivals in accommodation establishments
Italy - comparative figures
source: NIS and EUROSTAT
120000 UK
100000
(thousands)
80000
60000
40000
20000
0
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
20000
Romania Graphic no.3
18000 Bulgaria Total arrivals in accommodation establishments
Croatia - comparative figures 2
16000 Czech Republic source: NIS and EUROSTAT
Hungary
14000 Poland
Slovakia
12000
(thousands)
10000
8000
6000
4000
2000
0
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
PART II
2
The Romanian term was locatie de gestiune translated from the French word location
de gestion.
12 Chapter One Part II
4500
4000
Graphic no.4
Evolution of active companies in hotel & restaurant sector
source: NIS
3500
3000
2500
2000
1500
However, those documents represented a first step in the right direction for the
sector development.
Another important step ahead was made in 1998. For the first time
since 1989, a regulation dedicated to Romanian travel and tourism sector was
issued and enforced through the Government Ordinance no.58/ 19983. It is also
important to state the fact that, in the first paragraph of the regulation, tourism is
declared to be a priority domain of Romanias economy.
After those promising advances, Romanian authorities did not get any
further. No important attempts were made to implement a coherent development
strategy for tourism. However, not many efforts seemed necessary in that
direction as long as Romanian tourism still survived based on domestic tourism.
Traveling and spending holidays abroad were out of reach for many Romanians
during the late 1990s. Romanian tourism also benefited from the subsidies
provided for spa tourism by Romanian decision-makers. The subsidies were
given under the form of generous discounts for accommodation and for train
tickets. The main beneficiaries were retired people, low income individuals and
those with health problems4. Romanian authorities chose to keep spa tourism
afloat through social actions. The modernization of existing resorts, the
privatization, and the direct domestic or foreign investments were postponed
invoking the same social reasons (Popescu 2006a). Subsidies were considered
cheaper than the launch of a modern spa & wellness product and implicit
promotional actions.
Between 2000 and 2004 the Romanian politicians and authorities
attitude toward tourism remained ambiguous. The situation arose also from the
contradictory decision they took during 2003.
During the first 6 months of 2003, tourism was, again, declared a
national priority. However, by the end of June 2003, the Ministry of Tourism
was integrated into the bigger and more complicated structure of Ministry of
Transportation, Construction and Tourism (MTCT). The sectors of
transportations and constructions were already important, with a complicated
situation. Adding tourism to this structure only contributed to its future neglect.
As a result of tourism integration in MTCT, between July 2003 and March
2004, it was not clear which authority will be in charge with the sector. By the
end of March 2004, the National Authority for Tourism (NAT) was created and
for its head the status of president of NAT was established.
3
Since its enforcement, the Government Ordinance was modified three times through:
the Law no.755/ 2001, Government Ordinance no.5/ 2003 and the Law no.299/ 2003. It
should have been republished since its last alterations, but this thing never happened,
making it difficult to read and to understand for any interested party.
4
Those subsidies were justified in the eyes of Romanian authorities by the high inflation
rates, and the low level of pensions and medium wages.
Romania as a Tourist Destination and the Romanian Hotel Industry 15
5
Since the first strategy elaborated by the Ministry of Tourism for 1994-1996 was
available only on paper, no comparison could be made.
Romania as a Tourist Destination and the Romanian Hotel Industry 17
General elections were held by the end of 2004. The newly elected
government included, as the former governments did, tourism politics in its
agenda. Once again the importance of tourism had been expressed, including
emphasis upon infrastructure development supporting tourist destinations and
better cooperation between NAT and the private sector (AnatMedia, February
2005). An optimist declaration was made in January 2005 by G.Copos, vice-
prime minister at that time. He stated that in two years Romanian tourism would
compete directly with its western competitors (Business Magazin 2005a). A
more realistic statement would have been appropriated.
At the beginning of 2005 the declarative stage continued. The NAT
president, M.Crivtonencu, promised a (new) strategy for tourism development
by the end of that year (AnatMedia April 2005 and Budurca 2005). In
November 2005, the newly appointed NAT president, O.Marian, declared that
the WTTC report on Romania would be published. Only after this would the
strategy for Romanian tourism will be written (Onaca Purdea 2005)
Other much needed steps for further tourism development were made
in 2006.
18 Chapter One Part II
The absence, for years, of a coherent strategy can be understood if the list
of ministers of tourism or in charge of tourism, since 1990, is analyzed (Dogaru
2006):
January February, 1990 Mr. Mihai Lupoi
February June, 1990 n/a