INSIGHTS IN INTERNATIONALIZATION OF TOURISM FIRMS

The international dimension of tourism industry is becoming increasingly important and complex in the world of economy. Despite this increasing prominence little is known about the internationalization of tourism firms. This paper attempts to examine the concepts underpinning the notion of internationalization in light of today’s changes and challenges. In addition, it is our purpose to reflect on how the tourism firms could internationalize in an already “born global” world, where the “instantly international” outlook is becoming, nowadays, increasingly prevalent. Even though space does not permit a full approach, we hope to provide the necessary outline.Internationalization; Tourism; Small and Medium Enterprises; Strategic management.

The Ecotourism - Element of the Sustainable Development of the Local Rural Communities in Romania

The local rural communities of Romania have been affected by the evolution of the history in the last decades. To these there have been added the years of centralised economy and afterwards the transition towards the market economy. All of these have put the inhabitants of the villages between the temptations/obligations of leaving for the urban settlings, in many cases this leads to the phenomenon of uprooting. The last fifteen years have put the village back in the centre of many of the politicians, theorists and practicians preoccupations. The enlarged Europe also rises problems and question marks in regards to the economic and social development of the local communities in the Romanian rural environment. These uncertainties appear in a period in which we are more and more convinced of the necessity of the sustainable development, of the perpetuation of the responsible economic development, which would insure the satisfaction of society’s needs without endangering the future generations. Those presented are accompanied by a more and more accentuated tendency of the civilised world of living in good terms with the environment, of spending more time in nature, of being closer to all which is clean, alive and quiet. The number of those that ask for holidays in nature, in the rural environment is growing all over the globe. The soft tourism, in the countryside or in the middle of nature is more and more desired by the rich, but stressed people eager to return to the nature, to the life of the rural communities. All these forms of tourism are called ecotourism, and their development in Romania is only beginning. These activities play an important part in the economic development of the rural areas, which will further reflect upon their future evolution. A multidisciplinary research of this problem, combines economic, social objectives and those sustainable development of the Romanian rural communities.Ecotourism; Local community; Sustainable development; European integration.

Quality-Competitiveness: the Competitiveness through Quality

More and more specialists, including from our country, are busy developing the competitiveness of the products and services. Most of them believe that if we want to accomplish this, we must work with energy and conviction upon the important factors of the product/service competitiveness as it follows: technical factors: technique characteristics; financial factors: price/rate, the payment conditions; support factors: the extra services (“the service”) bound to a product/service in order to increase its added value (for example: by maintaining, instruction, consultancy, supply of change products and others); sale factors: delivery term, delivery conditions, the ways of distribution/sale and others. All these factors should be oriented in order to satisfy the clients’ exactingness, demands and expectations.Quality; Competitiveness; Competence; Products; Services; Maintaining.

The Adjustment of Perspective Among Students Regarding Protection of Educational Services’ Consumer

Academic education services entered Romanians habits more than a century and a half ago, at the beginning as a need for professional development mostly. Paradigm shift from the traditional perspective on education to the knowledge society perspective requires the increasing competitiveness of higher education systems. From this perspective, universities should collaborate frequently with other research institutions, private companies and public institutions, and participate in international research networks, to produce the optics change regarding the protection of educational services consumers: the next generation of students. To determine the above-mentioned change the authors developed and executed the pilot survey, which granted the possibility of testing the set of questionnaires and the relevance of questions. The survey was a random one; most of the responses are complying with the actual configuration in economic higher education institutions. The research objective “Investigation of student opinion of the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies on changes recorded in the Romanian higher education” consists in the development of an accurate picture of the changes that occurred and are occurring in our education system. The originality of the paper resides in the feasibility of implementing the research results reflecting changes that require an appropriate management allowing institution and its members to accomplish the implementation of changes required by Bologna process in the interests of its main beneficiaries: the students.consumer of education services, students, change management, university, the protection of the consumer, higher economic education

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE INTEGRATED TOURISM DEVELOPMENT OF A REGION AND THE RESPECTIVE LOCAL COMMUNITIES OF ROMANIA. A MORAL APPROACH

The current social and economic stage of development observed in Romania and, implicitly, that of the national tourism, requires a new type of approach vis-à-vis the “tourism development” concept. Until the 90s, tourism development was carried out in a centralized fashion and, in most cases, with little regard to the impact that strategy had on the environment and the local population. This strategy- which, in some cases, is still applied today-has had a significant impact on a national level, by creating huge discrepancies among the country’ s regions, with direct repercussions on local communities and the national labor market. Recent years have shown a distinct linkage between tourism and local communities, largely owed to the multiplying effect that tourism activities have, but also to the intricate network of correspondences between themselves. The purpose of this academic endeavor is to analyze the existing relationship between tourism development and the local community where it occurs, between the need for development and the need to preserve the local traditions, and to obser- ve if such equilibrium is feasible between these two terms. The ethics of tourist development should be the niche where the development policy should meet the expectations of the host local community.tourist, integrated, tourism development, local community, Romania, ethics, preserving traditions, eco-tourism

Innovation Management in the Small and Medium Enterprises

An intelligent perspective of any modern business passes from the simple reasoning cause-effect to a multi-stratified interpretation based mainly on a binary logic. The modern managers’ comprehensive capacity surpasses mechanical patterns or those made by the computers. The reason is the new managers’ capacity of using their intelligence and innovation beyond the mechanical thinking or that of electronic systems. The entrepreneurship system of the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) is characterized by its changing. The entrepreneurs have to look for the innovations and introduce them on the market. The innovation, the desire of changing and perpetuating them is much easier to be realized at the SME level. Innovation doesn’t mean only small improvement or circumstantial adapting to the market demands. Innovation makes the overcoming of the crisis moments easier, leads to a faster implementation of any change and thus it makes possible to reduce the risk to a minimum level, accompanied by the keeping in function of the system. This new way of expressing for the present-day managers makes the difference between the firms with bureaucratic, heavy, oppressive systems and those with modern, flexible, dynamic ones. This aspect could be generalized at the level of the countries, the difference being given by the way of solving the problems of the industrial decline and those of competition.Innovation; entrepreneurship system; conceptual abilities; social intelligence; public services

ECOROM – Indicators System Proposal of Quality Certification in Ecotourism

Open to trends in tourism development on European and world level, Romanian tourism improves under its impact, developing specific recognition criteria at global level, regarding the quality of services and cultural and natural attractions it owns. Developing a set of indicators based on performance which can be integrated into the ecotourism certification, provides an objective and scientific assessment of implementation and development of programs in tourism, taking into consideration their efficiency and, on this basis, embracing appropriate strategic decisions. Starting from the international experience in the field of certification, it was synthesized, in this paper, a set of core indicators that can be implemented in every local community, as a first step in the process of certification of the services offered to tourists. There were analyzed over 30 international certification systems, aiming both common points but also differentiation elements. Combining the international experience in this field with national specificities, a set of indicators is proposed, this paper, that may lead to a national certification system of ecotouristic services within a local community. The deployment of such a system in the tourism branch represents a first step for quality services, for the modernization of the Romanian tourism in accordance to some of the newest trends existing in the world: the requirements of sustainable tourism.certification, indicator system, ecotourism, sustainable development, sustainable tourism

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

Rural Tourism and Ecotourism – the Main Priorities in Sustainable Development Orientations of Rural Local Communities in Romania

At this moment, both in our country and in the European Union, rural tourism and ecotourism are among the most dynamic forms of tourism, a result of the advantages which it offers bouth tourists and host communities. Rural areas are rich in ecological and rural diversity. For a long time in their existence, rural communities have relied on the abundance of natural resources. But in the 20th century, major changes in technology, political or economic reasons have brought a profound transformation in agriculture, as well as other industrial resources were renewerable, which has led rural communities to be dependent on their face. For rural areas, the fast pace of change has brought with it not only opportunities but also favourable challenges. Sustainable development of Romanian local communities through ecotourism and rural tourism represents a requirement and at the same time a tendency of contemporary evolution. This process includes a suite of particularities of nature followed from tourist activity, specify in its complexity and interacting with the environment and other sectors of the economy, the magnitude and variety of social relations which they generate, on the one hand, and the characteristics of sustainable development, in general, on the other hand. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the existing relationship between rural tourism and ecotourism, between the need for sustainable development and the need to preserve the local traditions, and to observe if such equilibrium is feasible between these two terms