Romanian Tourism in the Current Economic Crisis

Romania’s seaside is 245 km long; we have 134 national parks and 13 natural reservations that cover 7% of the country’s surface; one third of Europe’s natural springs are located in Romania; 30 monuments are in the UNESCO patrimony; we have 6,600 monuments of national importance and over 670 museums; in Romania, there are 5,560 accommodation facilities but, unfortunately, 70% have two stars or less; 56% of the accommodation places are at the seaside; only 25% of the hotels are five-star hotels. Despite all this patrimony, why is the Romanian tourism experiencing a crisis?Romania, economic crisis, tourism.

Analysis of the Romanian’s attitude towards purchasing a mobile phone- between hedonic and utilitarian

Abstract: Attitude is the basis of consumer behaviour. To better understand this aspect of the behaviour all relevant attributes of a product or service must be studied. Therefore, the main purpose is to better understand the individual and make him your customer. Thus, the behaviour combines logical, cognitive, utilitarian aspects, as well as aspects related to emotions, feelings, affectivity (the hedonic component) and the attitude takes these two hypotheses to which it is added the intentional side. This concerns the intention of an individual after he has formed an idea, an opinion regarding a service or a product. Objectives: This paper deals with only two aspects of the attitude, namely the utilitarian/cognitive side and the hedonic/affective side. To obtain concrete results in what concerns the attitude of the consumers between hedonic and utilitarian we have conducted a quantitative research through which we analyzed the attitude of the inhabitants of Iasi towards buying a mobile phone, using a sample of 200 people living in Iasi. Prior Work: We, as researchers, have conducted previous researches using either the same topic (hedonic vs. utilitarian motivation), or the same product/industry (mobile phone/telephony) Approach: The problem that we submit to research is determining the proportion of hedonic and utilitarian that is involved in the purchase of a mobile phone in a temporal horizon of 6 months. Mobile phones are becoming more and more necessary, this being the reason why a growing number of persons have such an item. But the great rate to which they are renewed shows that the concept of pleasure interferes more and more in buying and having them. Thus, the purchase of a mobile phone must respond to both rational and emotional demands. Results: Starting from the main objective, we want to determine the proportion of the cognitive components as well as affective ones of the attitude of the mobile phone buyers from the inhabitants of Iasi- the biggest city from the North-East of Romania. Implications: As a direction for further researches we thing that it could be attempted to find out the consumption or the daily use of the mobile phone or what applications are mostly used on a mobile phone (in this situation, there should be taken into consideration a new aspect, namely the occupation, which will be an important factor to influence consumption). Once this aspect is discovered, it could be attempted to find out if the mainly utilitarian attitude derives from this factor. As it is used a lot, the mobile phone may lose some of the features that meet people's affective needs. Value Starting from the constitutive components of the attitude, we have studied the utilitarian/cognitive dimensions

THE CURRENT TRENDS AND OPPORTUNITIES IN THE INDUSTRY OF MEDICAL TOURISM

The industry of medical tourism is a non-regulated domain and due to this, it has certain risks. The existing information is variable and fluctuating because there is no unique trustworthy authority that could provide information. The travels performed with the aim to benefit from medical services are not something new but they manifest within a new, growing and globalized context.  The aim of this study is to identify the current status of Romanian Health Tourism in the light of the data collected from the specialised bodies, to evaluate the developments and to make recommendations on what should be done in the future. The study is supported by a general analysis of the literature in the field of medical tourism. The study integrated policy analysis, desk-based work, and economic analysis to estimate preliminary costs. The results obtained highlight Romania’s advantages on this special market – of the medical tourism, the activities that need to be performed for a better visibility and get a competitive advantage as well as the risks that our country faces when it encourages and develops this type of tourism.</p

Tourisme comme facteur de developpement durable

L’objectif principal de l’article est de présenter le concept et la signification du tourisme durable. On présente la définition du l’Organisation Mondiale du Tourisme qui définit le tourisme durable comme un tourisme qui tient pleinement compte de ses impacts économiques, sociaux et environnementaux actuels et futurs, répond aux besoins des visiteurs, de l'industrie, de l’environnement et des communautés hôtes. On souligne les agendas 21 locaux qui ont engagé une démarche territoriale dans le développement du tourisme durable. Une caractéristique fondamentale du secteur du tourisme est sa capacité de relier les aspects économiques, sociaux, culturels et environnementaux du développement durable. L’article traite les acteurs du tourisme durable et explique le rôle important des gouvernements dans le développement durable du tourisme

ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP AMONG TRAINING, SKILLS AND CONTENTEMENT OF THE EMPLOYERS

Successful designing and implementation of the quality management system in an organization requires taking into account the requirements of all categories of natural persons or legal entities which have direct or indirect interests towards it. Efficiency and effectiveness of the actions carried out to meet the expectations of stakeholders shall be assessed by periodic measurements and analyses accomplished with appropriate tools for each category. Obtaining favourable results following the measurement of contentment does not put an end to the process of relationships with the customers and stakeholders. Implementation of the process will reveal new expectations and requirements that, in conjunction with the ones existing in the Organization and in order to improve the activity will lead to strategies and policies that are intended to contribute to the continuous improvement of the relations with stakeholders. Thus, based on previous researches undertaken internationally and nationally, we carried out two investigations which aimed to identify the employers` needs and requirements related to the quality of skills provided by universities to the higher education graduates, and measurement of their degree of adjustment to the specified or implied requirements. In our country, the studies on employers\' requirements have permanently concerned the universities. The problems identified are almost similar with those abroad, and the solutions offered by many studies have not provided the solving key but only at most an improvement of the situation. The labour market in Romania is not structured, and there is no nationwide program for its development, but nevertheless the universities must provide the workforce for the next 3, 4 or 5 years. The researches carried out for this purpose show that work experience is considered by employers as a main criterion, stronger than the grade of graduation or than the reputation of the university where they graduated from. A first research - the exploratory type – has aimed through investigation to identify the following issues: the importance placed by employers on the staff selection criteria; areas in which employers have difficulties in finding staff with higher qualifications; skills that the employers would like the University to focus on, preparing additionally the graduates in this respect, and the general level of contentment in terms of the educational services quality. A second research – both the descriptive and explanatory type – has provided information on: identifying the skills required from the higher education graduates; measuring the importance placed by employers on several groups of skills and competencies; estimating the levels of the skills achieved in some Romanian universities; contentment survey related to other services provided by the higher education institutions in Romania