Impact of global economic crisis on international and national turism

The economic crisis is one of the most important events of the last period and it was felt in every economic sector of each country. Tourism, as an important sector of the economies, was affected too. Lack bugets made hole in the economy, population has dropped resigned and expensive trips or long vacations. Such revenues began to decline. We present in paper a top job of countries that have experienced crisis in the tourism sector, making the current fall in income to foreign tourists, but also a ranking of countries remaining interest news, such as France or Italy, which recorded continuously an explosive number of tourists. As for Romania, we could only appreciate how expensive it is a brand of tourism, lack of promotion originialitate and inadequate, making a comparison with the beauty of the country, which leaves the impression that there really are unique travels, wild places and experiences full satisfaction. We tried to outline all aspects of tourism attributes on global economic crisis, hoping to make it available ontourism, global crisis, decrease, country, economic

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TOURISM INDUSTRY AT THE REGIONAL LEVEL IN A CONTEXT OF ECONOMIC RELATIONS BETWEEN UKRAINE AND ROMANIA

The main questions dedicated to the transboundary collaboration between Ukraine and Romania are observed in the article. The priorities of regional cooperation are defined and the factors of influence on the tourism development are given.Tourism; Transboundary collaboration; Recreation; Factors of influence; Regional priorities.

Approach regarding the influence of business ethics on corporate governance

We may affirm that there is a cost for those who choose to live ethically in the midst of a world where fraud, tampering, theft, industrial espionage, corruption, bribes, conspiracy, tax evasion, embezzlement and unfair competition proliferate. The issue of business ethics has gained great relevance today, not only from research or journals that have proliferated views on this subject, but also because the economic and business reality itself shows it almost daily in the media. Both from the political and economic perspective, social responsibilities, the headlines on benefits due to fraud, bribery, corruption, privileges, unfair competition, have had as a result in many European countries the claim that somehow a stop should be put to these problems, which have irrupted heavily for several decades. Business ethics need not be a brake on economic benefit of companies, but it gives the business organization, even by using an Ethical Code, the social legitimacy it needs to be able to operate on the natural and business environment. The attitude of a company’s senior management that reflects the observance of the business ethics both by the managers’ own actions and by the policies applied within the company, by the decisions that are made, and the tasks that are set, by the adopted policies and the way in which the disciplinary sanctions and regulations are highly important for a clear grasp of the role played by ethics in business and regarding the good functioning of an organizationethics, fraud, management, social responsibility

Traditional professions+ elements of tourist integrated development in rural areas

Integrated development seen at the level of local community assumes a global approach of all influence factors over these on the one hand, but also the evolution of these in time on another hand. In these conditions there must be taken in consideration a series of aspects as: economic activities, local community and environment protection. The purpose of this paper is to analyze traditional trades/professions from rural areas in order to surprise these interconnections with environmental factors, economic aspects and local community. Traditional trades can be looked at from many points of view. First of them and the oldest one is the economic point of view. Employed populations in traditional fields are insuring a source of income and contribute to a raise of local wellbeing. The second aspect is bound by the attraction possibility of tourists in the area through the angle of these original activities, which are ever rarer due to the economic progress and competition. A third aspect, under which we are going to follow the trades, is referring to the development of the feeling of pride and community belonging, the maintaining of youth in the locality, at valuating the customs and folk traditions as a first step towards the perpetuation of these in the future. Last but not least we will analyze the connections between traditional trades and the natural framework as well as the impact of the above mentioned on the environment.integrated tourism, local community, rural, traditional handicrafts, customs

EU INTEGRATION AND TOURISM DESTINATION MANAGEMENT: THE CASE OF PORTUGAL

The EU membership has brought many benefits to Portugal by improving the access to the European policies and funds. The tourism sector is one of the fast growing industries in the country (accounting for approximately 11% of GDP) and it has strongly benefited from the EU integration, making Portugal one of the top destinations in the world. However, the recent economic slowdown, coupled with phenomena of worldwide proportions (the 11th September and the 4th March terrorist attacks, the SARS outbreak and, most recently, the avian flu threat) have made tourism professionals question about how destinations should be managed in a more innovative, responsible and profitable way. This paper attempts to provide, on one hand, some theoretical and empirical findings on Portuguese tourism evolution during the two-decade period of EU membership, with reference to some European support schemes and their impact on Portugal as a tourist destination. On the other hand, it aims to point out critical issues that are essential to depict future trends in destination management, which can be useful to emerging tourist destinations, such as many countries in Eastern Europe. Since Romania is a fast growing country in terms of international tourist arrivals and a candidate country in the next EU enlargement process, the Portuguese experience could be an interesting case to learn from.EU Integration; Tourism; Portugal

Have Spanish companies built greater entrepreneurship after privatization?

This study analyses some of the strategic and organizational changes experienced in public firms following privatization in its double facet: sale of companies and deregulation. Specifically, we analyse the process of innovation in terms of products, processes and organization. We also look into the development of new businesses and strategic renewal, which in the end shape the entrepreneurial capacity of a company. A sample of Spanish firms which were privatized between 1985 and 2000 shows that after privatization, these companies have experienced a significant increase in entrepreneurship. These changes are even more appreciable when a high sector competition is added to the ownership shift. Once they join the private sector, their level of product, process and organizational innovation is higher. They also develop new businesses at national level, reinforce their international activity and embark on strategic renewal processes by shedding the lesser profitable businesses and modifying their competitive strategy so as to gain efficiency

Demand for Vacations /Travel in Protected Areas – Dimension of Tourists’ Ecological Behavior

Tourism, in itself, is one of the main users of the environment and, implicitly, an important contributor to its deterioration. Intensification of tourist travel will naturally generate an increase of the negative environmental impacts and, in the long term, a decline in tourism development opportunities. In this context, more and more emphasis is placed on finding and promoting low environmental impact forms of travel, including eco-tourism, rural tourism, tourism in protected areas, cultural tourism, adventure tourism, etc., at the same time on encouraging, inciting potential tourists to consume these categories of products (holidays). Globally conducted studies have revealed a good understanding of and an increasing receptivity to sustainable forms of travel among tourists. Nevertheless, the place they hold in the structure of tourist circulation is still modest, mainly due to the insufficient supply, in its turn determined by ignorance of the demand and by the additional requirements the consumer of such holidays has to meet, especially in regard to behavior. In line with these developments and trends, this study aimed to identify the behavior of tourists in protected areas and its determinants, to encourage a responsible attitude towards the environment and its quality. For this purpose, desk and field researches were made to allow the characterization of holiday request in protected areas and to formulate proposals regarding tourists’ education.tourist demand, protected areas, ecological behavior, ecotourism, sustainable tourism development, eco(logical) tourism products

The Study of Perception and Project of the Territory Using Brain Storming

Brainstorming (based on conceptual mapping tools) is a method for identifying ideas, oriented to workgroups. In brief, it is the conceptual analysis of the discussion inside the group. In this way it is possible to enhance creative energies and develop new ideas. We propose two applications in the field of urban planning. The first is the development of a conceptual model of a given territory. By analysing the discussion among people involved in the elaboration of a report concerning social, economical, territorial aspects of Bergamo and Lecco (two Italian metropolitan areas), we have tried to find a link among various indicators and elements identifying the peculiar features of the territorial systems that we study. The second is, instead, the research of the best solution for opening a factory in a given territory. In this case study the discussion group is made by the actors intervening in the decision process, the administrators, the contractors, the urban planners, etc. The result will be compared with one obtained with traditional analysis.

HUMAN RESOURCES MOTIVATION - A CHALLENGE FOR SMES ECONOMIC PERFORMANCES

The present research aims to establish and configurate human resources development strategies for the employees of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that activate in the tourism field of activity (hotels and other accomodation establishments, restaurants, passenger trasnport, travel agencies, cultural turism agencies). As knowledge role in the contemporany economy is increasing and defining the economical and social context as knowledge-based ones, we shall consider the research frame as the knowledge-based economy. Moreover, in order to better highlight weaknesses and strenghts of the human resources management approaches and to define recommendations, our research theme is developped as comparative study: similarities and differences within SMEs human resources management practices in Romania and other European Union's country members (the example of Spain was considered).human resources, motivation, profitability, SMEs, tourism