CHALLENGES FOR ROMANIAN ECOTOURISM DESTINATIONS

Within this paper we present the top ten ecotouristic destinations in Romania and thus we argue the opportunities that our country has to develop and gain from this industry. Ecotourism is a type of tourism that encourages the interaction between local population and tourists, as a real interest to protect natural areas, not only in receptor sites, but also in the transmitter ones. In the first section we point out the characteristics of ecotourism and we emphasize the core values of this concept. Throughout the second part of the paper we review the principles of ecotourism and provide examples how these worked in several cases. The third section of the paper systematically emphasizes the specific behaviour features of the ecotourist in distinct stages, like searching for the destination, preparing the voyage and undertaking the voyage. Another important section of the paper refers to Romanian ecotourism destinations and presents their specific activities and purposes. The final section of the paper analyses the trends in the evolution of ecotourism and medium term and long term perspective.