Title: Tourism, cultural resources and regional competitiveness: a case study in Romania

Authors: Daniela-Luminita Constantin, Constantin Mitrut

Addresses: Academy of Economic Studies of Bucharest, Piata Romana 6, Sector 1, Bucharest RO-010374, Romania. ' Academy of Economic Studies of Bucharest, Piata Romana 6, Sector 1, Bucharest RO-010374, Romania

Abstract: For many regional economies tourism can offer effective solutions to the question of regional competitiveness. As a niche market, cultural tourism responds at present to a growing demand, more and more travellers ranking arts, heritage and other cultural activities as one of the main reasons of travelling. This paper proposes a case study in Romania, which discusses the current state and the perspectives of cultural tourism development at national and regional level. A special emphasis will be put on the possibility to correlate the policy measures supporting tourism development with those addressing the creation of a competitive specialisation profile, infrastructure improvement, sustainability, institutional capacity building, financial management and control so as to contribute to economic recovery and reducing intra and interregional disparities.

Keywords: regional competitiveness; historic heritage; cultural heritage; regional tourism; local tourism; culture; Romania; cultural tourism; economic recovery.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSTM.2008.020346

International Journal of Services Technology and Management, 2008 Vol.10 No.1, pp.48 - 60

Published online: 18 Sep 2008 *

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