Vol. XVI, no. 2/2017

Ecotourism, agro-tourism, rural tourism are forms of tourism that emerged in the last century, becoming increasingly important sectors of the tourism industry worldwide. The new kinds of life-style, the evolving tourist behaviour and continuously changing customers’ preferences coupled with the widespread concern about environment, industrial heritage and sustainable development are all factors that led to the expansion of these niche market types of tourism. The objectives of this paper are to research important implications and identify significant trends of ecotourism, agro-tourism and rural tourism in the European Union, focusing on the New Member States area, as there is a lot of potential for the expansion of these forms of tourism in the region. The Old Member States earn significant income from agro-tourism, while in the New Member States this is rather an unexploited opportunity, despite the fact that the cultural heritage and number of unspoilt natural areas is much more abundant than in the West. This paper will also look at the policies in this field, as the European Union is very interested and active in supporting agro-tourism and sustainable development, and many policies, programmes and initiatives address the three types of niche tourism. Key features, economic, environmental and socio-cultural benefits, as well as current and future challenges for ecotourism, agro-tourism and rural tourism in the entire European Union, but more thoroughly in the New Member States will also be addressed, with the purpose of creating a comprehensive paper, able to convince the scholars and practitioners in the field to pay more attention to this rather new topic, as a proactive approach can enable investments and attract more tourists to the area.

In 1998 eight development regions were set up in Romania (North-West, North-East, South-West, South-East, South, West, Center, Bucharest and Ilfov), with a view to efficiently absorb the EU funds, in order to reduce the socio-economic development disparities. Tourism is an important sector of the world economy and also of the development regions, contributing to economic growth in less developed areas, which yet have a high tourism potential. The main aim of the present paper is the analysis of development disparities of tourism in Romania, by tracking the changes that have taken place since the moment of creation of the development regions, in the periods of pre-accession and post-accession of Romania to the EU. The research comprises a cluster analysis based on tourism supply and demand indicators in the regions and counties of Romania; the main hypothesis of the study is that the development differences of Romanian tourism have diminished after the accession, as within the regions there are counties with greater tourism activity, that may turn into engines of regional economic growth.

Air transport and tourism have always been interconnected, influencing each other. Over the years, as air travel has been undergoing a series of changes, tourism organizations have also been affected, developing new tourism products, establishing partnerships and reinventing the services offered. This paper focuses on the impact of air travel on the tourism industry, taking into consideration the role of the airport in the regional economic development, the new forms of tourism developed as a consequence of the different changes in the airline industry and the recent position of air travel in the creation of tourism packages. At the same time, an analysis of data was made in order to highlight the role of air travel in tourism development in Romania.

Accessible tourism involves the provision of customized tourist services for people requiring special conditions (disabled, seniors, and young children). Everyone has the right to travel, thus, by creating these conditions, both public administrations and private enterprises should express their Social Responsibility. Due to the fact that in recent years accessibility has become a topic frequently debated at an international level, those involved in the Romanian tourism industry and political leaders have begun to show interest in supporting the development of a "tourism for all". In other words, a tourism where everyone can participate equally, regardless of the locomotor or sensory capacities. The present study presents the results of an assessment of the development stage of accessible tourism in Romania. We have interviewed people who have a direct implication in this niche of Romanian tourism, namely a representative of the President Complex in Baile Felix (awarded by the European Commission for accessibility) and the representative of the Sano Touring Agency, the only Romanian member of the European Network for Accessible Tourism).Success in this respect can come as a result of an appropriate professional approach to a number of factors that could lead to improved tourist offer with accessible services but also to encourage demand. In order to have a positive evolution, accessible tourism involves four steps: the awareness stage, the early stage, the development stage and the consolidation stage. In this paper we are going to analyse the stages that are currently taking place in Romania, namely: the awareness and the early stages.

In this paper we show how a constant and efficient collaboration between the school and the local community is needed in order to obtain positive effects and results in the pre-scholar education. The analysis is inspired from the Italian public school in which we have been directly involved in the framework of an experience exchange program as teacher in the public Romanian pre-scholar system.