ECOLOGICAL TOURS AS KEY FOR SUSTAINABLE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN TRANSYLVANIA

  • Tünde Gál Bucharest University of Economic Studies
DOI: https://doi.org/10.33776/et.v8i1.3267

Keywords:

touristic product, ecotourism, ecological tour, sustainable development, consumer behaviour

Abstract

The current society is undergoing a period marked by major changes, caused by global environmental problems and environmental pressures. Therefore, in order to limit the negative impacts of tourism it is necessary to promote tourism forms with low environmental impact, generally known as ecotourism.

Romania has a rich ecotourism potential, so the development and promotion of this form of tourism has high capabilities, but some high potential regions, as it is Transylvania, could loose their main attraction – untouched nature – if there is no proper regulation at local level. This paper aims to analyze the current state of eco-touristic sites, with special attention on the differences regarding the impact of the regular and ecological tours on the envirorment, the local community and the local economy. The analysis of the current state of ecological tour supply and demand in the Transylvanian region is based on primary data, identifying on one hand the approach of the tour operators and tour guides towards the organization of ecological tours, on the other hand the perception of the customers towards ecotouristic products.

The results indicate that a relative high percentage of the tour operators and tour guides show indifferent attitude towards the organization of ecological tours, even though they are aware of the fact that in order to preserve our natural sites there is need to increase ecological tour offer and the education of the tourists and local community. The customers on the other hand, depending on their socio-economic status and educational level, fall in very different groups when the principles of sustainability are to be kept in practice. 

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Altmetrics

Author Biography

Tünde Gál, Bucharest University of Economic Studies
Phd student, Faculty of Business and Tourism

References

Published
2018-06-30
How to Cite
Gál, T. (2018). ECOLOGICAL TOURS AS KEY FOR SUSTAINABLE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN TRANSYLVANIA. ENLIGHTENING TOURISM. A PATHMAKING JOURNAL, 8(1), 26-46. https://doi.org/10.33776/et.v8i1.3267
Issue
Vol. 8 No. 1 (2018): January - June
Section
RESEARCH PAPERS
Authors who publish in this journal agree to the following terms:
 
*Authors retain the copyright of their work and grant the journal right of its first publication under a Creative Commons License, in the following terms: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
 
This allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of its authorship and initial publication in this journal.
 
*Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in this journal (e.g., post it in an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
 
*Once published in this journal, authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in academic/scientific repositories or in their websites), as this can lead to a greater number of citations.