Vol.II, no. 2/2011

It's time for the balance sheet

By Puiu Nistoreanu

1. Efficiency Measures and Deconcentration Of Public Services

By Vasile Bicajanu

2. Urban Segregation. Case Study: Bucharest

By Viorel Mionel

3. Approaches and Evaluations of The Tourism Sector in Emerging Economies

By Ana-Maria Nica

The importance of print and visual media in the promotion of hospitality enterprises

By Anamaria Răvar

As the development of tourism cannot be realized without the selling of tourism products and services, and this selling is not possible in the absence of promotion activities, the marketing activities in the field of tourism are essential to ensuring the success of tourism activities. The current paper illustrates the importance of print and visual media in the promotion and communication of tourist destinations and accommodation facilities. Flyers, brochures and catalogues create a link between the service provider and the end consumers, informing and educating them, creating notoriety, facilitating acquisition and stimulating demand.

Romania's competitiveness as a tourist destination

By Carmen Moraru

Current trends in tourist motivation

By Elena-Cristina Mahika

Currently, in an evolving economy, the study of tourist behaviour is crucial for the field specialists. Influenced by a variety of factors, tourists tend to change their behaviour in time. An important indicator of tourist behaviour, tourist motivation has the purpose of revealing consumer's desires and apirations when opting for a vacation. The analysis of tourist motivations has the advantage of preparing tourist practitioners, and therefore to prepare and forecast the oferr of tourism products that match the current and future demand. This paper is an exploratory research, based on data and studies on recent evolution of the travelling reasons, in order to identify the changing trends.

How film and television programs can promote tourism and increase the competitiveness of tourist destinations

By Claudia-Elena Ţuclea, Puiu Nistoreanu

This paper outlines the correlation between the power of film (both movies and television series) as a motivational and image-making tool and the attractiveness of tourism destinations. In the light of this relationship, our research analyses the phenomenon of film-induced tourism. Even this phenomenon has been recognized and reported, very few comprehensively studies of it have been published. The evidence that has been put forward to date has mostly been anecdotal, pointing towards the capacity of popular films and television series to attract tourists, in the form of enthusiastic fans and interested audience members. Despite the fact that statistics concerning directly the impact that films have had on tourism are limited, there are still some remarkable figures. Countries like UK, Australia, and New Zealand have an increasingly interest in studying and developing the film-induced tourism. Given the existence of this type of tourism and the potentially significant economic value of this strand of tourism to the economy, understanding the drivers of film-induced tourism and exploiting its effect are crucial issues to comprehend. This paper evaluates a number of key questions and provides a stronger insight into the nature of productions which can induce tourism and recommends ways in which this relation can be strategically maximized from the economic and cultural point of view. In the current context of decreasing the Romanian tourism and film industry development, approaching together their augmentation can represents a valid solution for both industries.

Impact of human resources in quality achieving and development, premise of gaining success in tourism

By Gabriela Diaconescu

In the current context of financial crisis, the importance given to human resource of tourism has known significant changes regarding the ways of motivation and involvement in order that organizational objective to be achieved. Quality is a sine qua non condition for gaining success in business which must be integrated into the company management and maintained to rates as high as possible. First objective of this paper it’s been represented by emphasizing the idea that staff of travel agencies has a decisive role in achieving quality services, involvement of human resources at all levels allowing to use their skills and knowledge for the organization benefit. In this respect, a special attention is given to the human resources professional training and to the skills improvement at work or outside of it. This idea is supported by all stakeholders need to transfer, especially to the customers, confidence and sense of safety in tourism products, elements that lead to their loyalty and to obtain long-term partnerships. Highlighting this fact is another objective of the article. But, if these are not a priority, consumer perception of the company is influenced in a negative way and results in an image acquisition unfavorable, requiring higher costs and efforts to improve it. Thus, the current economic situation, launches a challenge to all companies, to secure a brand that consumers can identify and call, and it lies in the ability to create all favorable conditions for achieving staff integration and motivating in order to create quality at all levels.

Methods of monitoring the visitors inside the natural protected areas

By Andreea Băltăreţu

The monitoring activity represents a part of the management plan which is constantly evaluating the actions inside a protected area. The tourists’ monitoring is made through specific means that are established on a scientific basis. It can be done by the staff of the protected area, after an appropriate training or by scientists in joint programs. This process requires considerable resources, time and effort, collecting, processing and interpreting the data, how they will be used and the obtained results. This process also requires time, effort and the availability of the visitors. The information collected from visitors, if they are collected by appropriate means, can support the initiation of educational and interpretation activities within the protected area. Therefore, monitoring should include tourism and educational activities as from its results it could develop long-term trends and ways to be followed in this domain.

Regional tourism from the perspective of the Danube strategy – iron gates region

By Mirela Mazilu

In the context of a global economy, the sustainable development strategy of Romania must emphasize the catalyst factors of economic and social change, in order to promote economic growth. At the same time, the strategy must be sufficiently flexible for the adaptation to shocks and change processes. The complex of negative factors (the status of the infrastructure, the outdated mentalities, the poor professional training, the long economic crisis, etc.), to which we may add a certain inertia or/and superficiality of some local public administrations regarding the meaning and the definition of local development of tourism, explains the difficulties dealt with by this sector, so dependent on the general status of the national economy. That is why the existence of a national program for the regional development of sustainable tourism is of maximum importance, being identified firstly with the priority objectives of some less evolved areas, which would revive their economy. In this context, the "Strategy of the European Union for the Danube Region" is beneficial for the Iron Gates Region - tourist micro-destination, representing a multinational program through which the European Community has proposed to reduce the delays - firstly economic - between the countries located on the superior course of the old river as well as of those located on its inferior course.

SMEs' networks - modern method to develop Romanian tourism

By Mădălina Lavinia Ţală, Gabriela Ciuciulă

In recent years, due to the globalization phenomenon and the increasing role of the Internet, a new concept has revolutionized humanity: networks. Whether they have an informal or professional structure, networks have become a highly effective means of communication. But one cannot find networks only in the virtual sphere. They are configured and functioning in real life with members who are attending regular meetings. From a business point of view, there are many advantages of being involved in a network’s activity. The domain of tourism has become an area where communication is established as a sine qua non of evolution. Thus, SMEs (Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises) from tourism sector find themselves facing a new challenge, that of visibility, as the correct expression of the business content in order to increase awareness and its natural consequences, one of which is competitiveness. Belonging to a tourism network of SMEs in tourism determines, inter alia, an improved communication, acquisition of new techniques of expression, the ability to act together in order to face the problems, access to best practices experienced by other organizations. For these companies from tourism sector is a moment to change their long term strategy and to follow a simple principle - competition must be regarded with different, more "friendly" eyes. In a world where tourism is a regarded as a domain which undoubtedly registers a rising trend, the benefit of communication and collaboration must be strictly higher than that of competition. By being a member of such networks, the SMEs can reach unexpected performance and can strengthen their position on the market.

Strategies for sustainable competitive advantage in real estate industry

By Ovidiu Dobre

In order to differentiate from other companies, the real estate developers should understand and accept the fact that the industry is not facing a cyclical problem but it has fundamentally changed and in the following years the industry will remain less attractive. The paper focuses on the strategies a real estate developer could implement in order to develop a long term sustainable competitive advantage. On one hand a competitive advantage can be obtained by having a lower cost than the competitors and consequently obtaining higher margins when selling at the market prices. On the other hand a competitive advantage can be created by differentiation, by the ability to use the company’s unique skills and resources (better utilization of land and human capital, more appealing design, innovation) in order to obtain higher revenues by requesting a higher price. Knowledge is the key competitive advantage in real estate industry, the element which creates and sustains the competitive advantage on the long run. A developer may have a great knowledge of particular customer needs, a specific area, of the market in which operates or it can be better than the competitors in terms of economic intelligence. However, implementing a proper human resource strategy is at least as important as exploiting knowledge. Consequently, by achieving an efficient human resource management, real estate developers can take advantage of future innovation, better customer relationship or complementary growth strategies. In addition, the human resource strategy should facilitate the knowledge transfer within firm, as to fully exploit the knowledge competitive advantage and to support the knowledge creation. This paper is an exploratory research, based on secondary sources about strategies for developing competitive advantage on the long run, in real estate industry.

The business travellers' motivation and behaviour

By Andreea Marin-Pantelescu

An understanding of way people buy business trips, why they choose one particular company over another, and why they choose to travel when they do this is vital to those who work in the tourism industry. Yet curiously, we know relatively little about tourism motivation because the reasons for their choices are little understood. This is not entirely the result of a lack of research, because many companies are doing research regarding the tourists’ behaviour, but as this is ‘in house’ research, the information is confidential to the company concerned, and seldom becomes public knowledge. The purpose of this paper is to explain the business travellers’ motivation and behaviour by making a difference between leisure and business tourists’ specific motivation and behaviour. The paper also presents the world and national evolution of these two particular segments of travellers and includes comments regarding their future perspectives.

Models of dependancies between economic development and corporate social responsibility

By Timothy Lee, Gabriela Cecilia Stanciulescu, Magdalena Bunghez, Camelia Grozea

In the current context of the economic-financial crisis, corporate social responsibility represents a bridge for the harmonization of the interests of all stakeholders on the economic-social scene. The article is focused on two main objectives. The first goal was to point out the existent dependences between the general economic growth, corporations and stakeholders, through the corporate social responsibility. These dependencies are reflected in international principles and behavioural models (UN Global Compact Management Model, The Blueprint for Corporate Sustainability, CAUX principles) proposed by the European Community and the international organisations UN Global Compact and OECD. The second objective is to carry out an analysis model in main components and a hierarchical classification which has confirmed moreover that the large economic powers are the cause and explanation of their involvement in the principles of social responsibility. This article points out the implementation level of the principles of corporate social responsibility in Romanian. The characteristic is the involvement of most of the companies especially in donations and sponsorships. The economic-financial crisis has led to the movement of the accent towards partnerships based on entrepreneurship, especially in what the relation between the companies and non-governmental organisations are concerned, in order to provide funds and to take employees in voluntary actions.

The 2011 International Conference on Tourism . Papers presented at international conferences, with program committee, outside Romania

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