The Balkan balneotherapy product – an approach from the destination marketing perspective

Considering the common features in the resources field, but especially the way in which they have been managed at the level of each individual country, it can be stated that a destination such as the Balkan peninsula represents a culturally homogeneous space, which has been crystallized over centuries of common history and which has imprinted a “common” destiny to the member countries, regarding the economic and cultural development. Regarding natural resources, the main similarity resides in the existence of balneotherapy resources, with particular therapeutic properties, nowadays’ development being pressured by the deterioration of one’s conception about its own health (from the demand perspective), on the one hand, and extending the concept of health (from the supply perspective), on the other hand. In the context of a less-controlled development of certain methods/techniques/procedures by the stakeholders of wellness industry, it is necessary to maintain the authenticity of the balneotherapy product whose essence is the treatment. The purpose of the paper relies in establishing the common elements which could form the essence of the balneotherapy product (sui generis) and, in the same time, the differentiation elements which form the developed product of each Balkan country, alongside with the establishment of joint actions, in order to set the coordinates of the regional balneotherapy marketing strategy for the Balkan peninsula

ASPECTS REGARDING THE FACEBOOK USER IN ROMANIA AS A POTENTIAL DESTINATION IMAGE - VECTOR

The Internet’s rapid development from the 1.0 version to the 2.0 one has triggered the appearance of social networks. Facebook is Illustrative of them due to the number of users it attracts and its international range of dispersion. Although a beginner in communication, Facebook Romania is prone to contribute highly to the “content generator” market in what concerns its users. In order to create or maintain a brand’s positive image it is necessary to know some elements regarding the demographic aspects of the target public, and its attitudes, predilections or behaviours in general. Thus, web pages created on Facebook can “transform” its users into fans and there is a possibility that afterwards these fans become image -vectors by way of the delivered experiences. This article tries to study the fundamental elements that could make up the profile of a user from the targeted group as a potential destination image- vector

Strategies of post-adhesion of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Bucharest – a marketing approach

In order to achieve its existential purpose, respective the development of the commerce, industry, agriculture and services, according to the requirements of the market economy within the globalization of the international economy, on one hand, and of the postadhesion of Romania to the European Union, on the other hand, The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Bucharest needs to become an instrument and at the same time a satisfaction mean of the customers’ needs, starting from the small, medium and large companies to associations and patronages and ending with the destination of Bucharest, as a harmony of these requirements. With this purpose, a marketing approach of the strategies of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Bucharest will have as an initial point, the identification and creation of a hierarchy of the identity elements and specificity of the metropolitan area of Bucharest, elements that constitute the material or human potential. As a result, in his quality of main organization and equidistant of the economic environment of Bucharest, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Bucharest will consolidate its image, at the same time with its importance, through all the services offered to create a lasting development of Bucharest.partnership strategies, personnel strategies, product strategies, promotion strategies.

CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING THE DESIGN OF SPECIFIC TOURISM PRODUCTS FOR THE TOURISM DESTINATION ROMANIA

Romania, as tourism destination with its component micro-destinations (Muntenia, Oltenia, Banat - Crişana, Transylvania, Bucovina, Maramureş, Moldavia and Dobrogea), possesses many tourism attractions and at the same time has a real tourism potential. The fact that it is not included among the Europe’s „valuable” destinations represents a loss both for its inhabitants and for Europeans in general, too. One of the reasons is the lack of an image consolidated by identity elements or / and simply the lack of image that would represent the starting point for development of appropriate tourism products (developing a strategy). This paper proposes, starting from the image perceived by the inhabitants about their own destination – based on the example of Transylvania – to emphasize the importance and also the role of the destination image in developing the main directions of actions and, especially, in developing the strategy for the specific tourism products

SOUVENIRS - FACTOR INFLUENCING THE TOURISM ACTIVITY. CASE STUDY: OPINIONS OF YOUNG PEOPLE ON SOUVENIRS

The capacity, or more precisely the “task” of concentrating, both from a functional and aesthetic perspective, the essence of a tourism destination into a single object, represents the main explanation why the marketing specialist of the respective destination attaches an enhanced importance to souvenirs. Therefore, due to synthesizing the important, or so considered elements, souvenirs significantly influence the image the potential consumers may form, as well their reiteration by the existing consumers. In order to find out the consumers’ opinions on the representativeness of the souvenirs sold in shops, deemed as the most important by the authors of this article, a quantitative, exploratory research was performed, whose purpose is identifying young peoples’ position on the image conveyed by means of souvenirs. The need for this research is incontestable in order to create a connection among the desired image, the conveyed image, the perceived image and the expected image

Banat-Crişana as Micro-destination – Elements of Tourism Image and Tourism Identity

Geographical regions, according to some authors, are defined and delimited by criteria that vary from one geographical school to another. These criteria may be: scenic, functional, political-administrative, mental etc. (processed after Cocean cited in Neguţ, 2011, p. 157). They also can be combined according to the objectives/strategies that are elaborated for each branch of the economy: industry, agriculture, tourism, etc. In this regard, from tourism point of view, the region of Banat-Crişana was taken into consideration, that includes the following counties: Caraş-Severin, Timiş, Arad and Bihor. Due to the many land and air border points, it represents the first contact with the tourists coming from the West, with other words “its visiting card… crucial in formulating the first impressions regarding Romania” (Cocean, 2010, p. 201). The presented research aims to highlight the role of the image of the region of Banat-Crişana in building its own brand, by identifying its main tourist attractions and forms of tourism

Transylvania – Romanian Tourism Micro-destination

Although nowadays there are many controversies regarding the three regionalization dimensions (the positive-scientific regionalization, the symbolic- informal regionalization and the normativeformal regionalization) in terms of the modification of the third, due to the norms and principles of the accedence to the European Union and due to the access to the structural funds, the symbolic-informal regionalization (“produced in the collective mental of the individual and group selfidentification, of current practices and that includes the sphere of the culture (…) being not only a factor, but also a result of the social construction” (Benedict, 2000, p. 47)) remains in the same time a supporting element in the development of the regional brand. Thus, the region of Transylvania, in accordance with the results of the conducted research, entirely corresponds with the definition that Passy (2001, p. 16) assigned to the region, namely “on the one hand, a social construction – created by economic, politic, cultural and administrative discourses and practices – but, on the other hand, it might become a power center”