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

Abstract

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