MARKETING RESEARCH REGARDING TOURISM BUSINESS READINESS FOR ECO-LABEL ACHIEVEMENT (CASE STUDY: NATURA 2000 CRIŞUL REPEDE GORGE-PĂDUREA CRAIULUI PASS SITE, ROMANIA)

<p>Sustainable development is an approach that aims to preserve the environment and the culture of communities hosting tourists and at the same time to meet the needs of tourists and to maintain the growth of tourism industry. These objectives are more and more related to eco-labelling, which provides the certification based on a series of benchmarks developed and verified by a third party.</p> <p>The labelling of an organization as an ecotourism organization requires the compliance with certain criteria as those required by the European Ecotourism Labelling Standard.</p> <p>Natura 2000 Crişul Repede Gorge– Pădurea Craiului Pass site will have to prove that it is in compliance with the prerequisites to become an ecotourism destination.</p> <p>The objectives of this paper are:</p> <ul><li>to identify the prerequisites that a destination must comply with in order to be labelled an ecotourism destination, focusing on the prerequisites related to the existence and behaviour of tourist reception structures; </li><li>to identify the extent to which tour operators are open and willing to support the labelling of the destination where they operate as being ecotourism.</li></ul> <p>Work methodology is based on the interview as an investigation method and semi-structured survey as working instrument. The hypotheses drawn up were partially confirmed, by the increased availability of the operators to meet, under certain conditions, the eco-labelling criteria.