DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS OF THE INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION PHENOMENON IN ROMANIA BETWEEN 1991 AND 2008

Migration represented and represents a very important phenomenon at global level, taking into consideration besides its demographic implications, its extremely diverse implications such as socio-economic, socio-cultural, territorial, or environmental. This represents, probably, the main reason why the research on migration is interdisciplinary, having strong connections with sociology, political sciences, history, economics, geography, demography, psychology, or low, among others. All these disciplines target different aspects of population migration, and a proper comprehension of the phenomenon implies a contribution from the part of all of them. Although migration represents a phenomenon manifested since ancient times, it has never been such an universal or significant phenomenon from the socio-economical or political perspective, as it is in present times. International migration has both a negative and positive impact on both provider and receiving countries, in general playing a very important role in the structure and dimension of the population of a country. Romania is not an exception to the previously expressed statement; furthermore, after the fall of the communist regime, migration became for Romania one of the most important socio-economical phenomena. The present paper aims at analyzing in a descriptive manner the international migration phenomenon in Romania between 1991 and 2008, from quantitative perspective. Based on data identified in the \"Statistical Yearbook of Romania" - 2008 and 2009 editions - the analysis revealed the fact that both immigration and emigration flows registered oscillatory evolutions in the analysed period, but the general trend of immigration was of increasing, while the one of emigration was of decreasing. Immigration was dominated by the presence of males, of persons aged between 26 and 40 and of persons coming from the Republic of Moldova. On the other side, in the case of emigration the significant presence of females, of persons aged between 26 and 40, of persons of Romanian nationality and of those who preferred as main destination country Italy, was remarkable.international migration, immigration, emigration, Romania

Tourist quality of Spain beaches under the perspective of sustainability

An exploration of the Autonomous Communities of Spain with the highest number of beaches with Q of quality is studied in this work. The purpose of this paper is to analyzed the Autonomous Community with the more Q of Quality and study the differences between the tourism expenditure in this region. The Q of quality is a certificate granted by the Institute for Spanish Tourism Quality that guarantees high quality in certain sectors. This study finds that Andalusia is the main autonomous community with the highest number of beaches with quality Q. In addition to this, a comparison between the average expenditure of residents in Spain and foreigners who take leisure trips is analyzed in this study. However, when comparing the average expenses of people who do tourism in Andalusia to the average cost throughout the entirety of Spain during their vacations and holidays, it was determined that they are not significantly different. Even so, a significant difference between the average expenditure of residents and tourists in Spain is determined. In future research, this study will be extended to the other Autonomous Communities of Spain to find differences among them.2019-2

FROM SLOW FOOD TO SLOW TOURISM

One of the effects of globalization is the faster pace of our lives. This rhythm can be noticed in all aspects of life: travel, work, shopping, etc. and it has serious negative effects. It has become common knowledge that stress and speed generate serious medical issues. Food and eating habits in the modern world have taken their toll on our health. However, some people took a stand and argued for a new kind of lifestyle. It all started in the field of gastronomy, where a new movement emerged – Slow Food, based on the ideas and philosophy of Carlo Petrini. Slow Food represents an important adversary to the concept of fast food, and is promoting local products, enjoyable meals and healthy food. The philosophy of the Slow Food movement developed in several directions: Cittaslow, slow travel and tourism, slow religion and slow money etc. The present paper will account the evolution of the concept and its development during the most recent years. We will present how the philosophy of slow food was applied in all the other fields it reached and some critical points of view. Also we will focus on the presence of the slow movement in Romania, although it is in a very early stage of development. The main objectives of the present paper are: to present the chronological and ideological evolution of the slow movement; to establish a clear separation of slow travel and slow tourism, as many mistake on for the other; to review the presence of the slow movement in Romania. Regarding the research methodology, information was gathered from relevant academic papers and books and also from interviews and discussions with local entrepreneurs. The research is mostly theoretical and empirical, as slow food and slow tourism are emerging research themes in academic circles

FORMS OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM SUITABLE TO APUSENI MOUNTAINS, ROMANIA

Sustainable tourism is the result of the melange between tourism and sustainable tourism. The concept has evolved during the last decades of the twentieth century, in international conferences, summits etc. organized by the World Tourism Organization, the United Nations and other international organizations where it was defined, characterized and criticized. Unfortunately, the concept was not able to overcome its theoretical conceptualization and it did not reach practitioners of the tourism industry. Sustainable tourism has several forms which are actually practiced by tourists all over the world: ecotourism, backpacking, rural tourism, nature-based tourism, pro-poor tourism, volunteer tourism etc. In the present paper, we have focused on an area in Apuseni Mountains, Romania. We tried to identify the forms of sustainable tourism most suitable for this area considering: natural resources, socio-economical development, protected areas, gastronomic traditions etc. After considering all these we have selected three forms: ecotourism, volunteer tourism and slow tourism, which could have the highest impact in promoting this area, and actually all the Apuseni Mountains as an important destination for sustainable tourism. The arguments for ecotourism are based on the numerous natural tourism resources> caves, gorges, forests and wildlife. Volunteers are needed especially in conservation and English language course. For slow tourism, there are numerous trails for walking and biking. Also there are several foods, mainly based on milk and wild berries that should be promoted and sold under the slow food brand. The shortcomings of the research are the lack of quantitative and qualitative results, as there is no information regarding the number of tourists which visit the area during each year. Also, it is hard to compare the benefits of sustainable tourism with those of mass tourism, due to the lack of references. So it is harder to argue for sustainable tourism and its forms to the detriment of mass tourism

Contemporary Challenges for Sustainable Tourism – a Regional Perspective

Sustainable tourism has become a new method of practicing tourism. It has emerged in the last part of the 20th century, from the efforts of academia as a response to the increasing negative effects of mass tourism, noticeable all over the world. At the same time, sustainable tourism is considered by some a utopia, a narrow niche of the tourism market, with limited perspectives. From a theoretical standpoint, it is highly debated with no consensus regarding its definition, features and principles. In recent years, although significant steps have been taken especially by international organizations, like UNEP (The United Nations Environment Programme) and UNWTO (The World Tourism Organization), sustainable tourism still faces numerous challenges. In the present paper, we have collected information from several authors and organizations and have presented some contemporary challenges for sustainable tourism. For our research, we have tried to identify several common challenges for six selected countries in Central and Eastern Europe – The Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania, and also go into a more detailed look in the case of Romania. Finally, we consider that if we can identify specific regional challenges, we might find regional solutions and answers. Considering the numerous similarities between the six countries, there might be common solutions for the benefit of the entire region

DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS OF THE INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION PHENOMENON IN ROMANIA BETWEEN 1991 AND 2008

Migration represented and represents a very important phenomenon at global level, taking into consideration besides its demographic implications, its extremely diverse implications such as socio-economic, socio-cultural, territorial, or environmental. This represents, probably, the main reason why the research on migration is interdisciplinary, having strong connections with sociology, political sciences, history, economics, geography, demography, psychology, or low, among others. All these disciplines target different aspects of population migration, and a proper comprehension of the phenomenon implies a contribution from the part of all of them. Although migration represents a phenomenon manifested since ancient times, it has never been such an universal or significant phenomenon from the socio-economical or political perspective, as it is in present times. International migration has both a negative and positive impact on both provider and receiving countries, in general playing a very important role in the structure and dimension of the population of a country. Romania is not an exception to the previously expressed statement; furthermore, after the fall of the communist regime, migration became for Romania one of the most important socio-economical phenomena. The present paper aims at analyzing in a descriptive manner the international migration phenomenon in Romania between 1991 and 2008, from quantitative perspective. Based on data identified in the "Statistical Yearbook of Romania - 2008 and 2009 editions - the analysis revealed the fact that both immigration and emigration flows registered oscillatory evolutions in the analysed period, but the general trend of immigration was of increasing, while the one of emigration was of decreasing. Immigration was dominated by the presence of males, of persons aged between 26 and 40 and of persons coming from the Republic of Moldova. On the other side, in the case of emigration the significant presence of females, of persons aged between 26 and 40, of persons of Romanian nationality and of those who preferred as main destination country Italy, was remarkable

Do economic growth and environment quality contribute to tourism development in EU countries? A panel data analysis

The positive impact of the tourism industry on economic growth, revenues, infrastructure, employment, social inclusion and poverty reduction, although widely recognised, has been lately weighted against the appearance and exacerbation of several problems, such as: environmental footprint, increase of income inequality, cost increases related to solid waste collection, energy consumption, increased global CO2 emissions. On the other hand, the tourism sector is not just an active economic, societal, or environmental change agent; in turn, the tourism sector supports or is highly influenced by various factors, such as climate change, economic, political, or social factors. More recently, this industry has been highly impacted by the pandemic, technological developments and cultural trends. In this article we examined both the short and long-run relationship between tourism development and economic growth, CO2 emissions and energy consumption in European Union member states (EU27), by using the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) technique and autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model for panel data. The findings suggest that economic growth and energy consumption have a statistically significant impact on the tourism index both in the short and long-run, whereas CO2 emissions only have a significant impact upon the tourism index on the long run