Joining the European Union and Sibiu city being chosen as European capital of culture for the year obviously contributed to the 7.7m foreign visitors who came to Romania in 2007. It is noteworthy that 62.3% of these were from elsewhere in the European Union.

Table 1 Total tourist statistics (000s)

Year	2005	2006	2007
Visitors to Romania	5,805	6,216	6,972
Foreign visitors*	1,430 (24.6%)	1,380 (22.2%)	1,551 (22.2%)
Overnight stays in tourist accommodation	18,373	18,992	20,593
Foreign stays	3,464 (18.8%)	3,242 (17.1%)	3,586 (17.4%)

* Please note that the total number of visitors is influenced by the cross-border flows between Romania and Moldova (a non EU country) and between Romania and Hungary (in the EU)

The statistics show immediately the greater involvement of Romanians as tourists, both in their own country and abroad.

Table 2 International tourism flows: Romania 2005–07

Year	2005	2006	2007
Arrivals of foreign visitors	5,839	6,037	7,722
Departures of Romanian visitors abroad	7,140	8,906	10,980
Visitors to Moldova	1435	1490	1110
Visitors to Hungary	1522	1367	1743

1 Institutul National de Statistica 2008 figures

1 Romanian tourism and the influence of mega-trends

The European Commission (EC) sums up the influence of mega trends on the tourism in Europe in a report that assesses the causes of tourism flows at a global level.[2] It looks at the external global context of tourism (economic, political, social and environmental trends); changes in lifestyle consumption and changes that directly influence the functioning of tourism industry such as sale trends, travel and informational technologies.

Older people’s tourism

European trend 1 As a whole, the EC highlights senior citizens as a growing part of the population and an important source of potential tourists because they enjoy large pensions, the benefit of early retirement and good health.
Romania is not following this trend. Even though its retirement-age policy has responded to other European countries which reconsidered or increased the retirement age (now 60 in France, 67 in Germany; in Britain it will be 66 from 2030, 67 from 2040 and 68 from 2050), its pension payments are lower and, from an economic point of view, senior citizens among its poorest.[3] Despite different programs of governmental support promoted by the media, retired pensioners face low incomes, putting them on the edge of survival (currently, the average pension is only of €87 per month).[4]

At the present time, Romanian pensions are among the lowest in Europe and pensioners who are already retired do not benefit from private pensions.[5] Also, the forecasts are worrying because the ratio between retired pensioners and taxpayers is unbalanced, with one taxpayer supporting up to 1.32 retired pensioners. Their low incomes are reflected in poor life expectancy compared to the other countries of the European Union (EU).[6]

Romania has the EU’s shortest life expectancy for women at 75 years, compared to Spain where it is 84 years. Also, life expectancy for men is among the shortest in Europe, at 68.2 years, as opposed to 78.4 years in Sweden. On reaching retirement, the working class of the Communist era does not have a culture of travel and fun; the majority of these people came from the countryside to the towns during industrialisation and lack secondary or further education. Where they still enjoy good health, their aspiration is for ‘retirement among children and grandchildren’, as Romania belongs to the category of collectivist-minded countries in which the extended family plays a very important role.[7]

The tourism of ‘Romanian pensioners’ is likely to be limited to those professions that encourage trips (like business people, sportsmen, teachers) or who can visit children who left to work in other countries – Great Britain, Spain, Italy and Germany. It will not be a mass tourism, but mainly a tourism of elites, accessible only to those already used with spending their holidays in throughout world, in the great cities, in winter mountain resorts or in exotic islands.

The tourism of adventure

European trend 2 Another tourism segment with growth potential is young people who, according to the European Commission, make up more than 20% of global tourists. The increasing incomes of young people living alone and new social infrastructures favour social and professional network consolidation, leading to a greater interest of young people aged 16–35 in tourism destinations and especially a tourism of adventure (generally oriented to ‘sport in nature’ – trips, exploration, climbing, alpinism, caving and sky sports).
In Romania, this phenomenon hardly applies to young people. While there is a segment of the young with good earnings who enjoy a higher degree of mobility both inside the country and abroad, it is still small. Joining the EU was an opportunity for many Romanian graduates to find better paid jobs in companies abroad, while others obtained scholarships to continue their studies elsewhere. In practice, the degree of economic development stands in the way of financial independence and a majority have not managed to buy a house and still live with their parents. Therefore, young Romanians are still unlikely to enjoy tourism abroad. Where they do travel, a large proportion are visiting parents who went abroad to work and in such cases they, in their turn, may stay there to work (the VFR – visit friends and relatives – category).

Certainly, the tourism of adventure by young people will be more attractive in countries where education within the family centres on sport skills development – for health reasons and as a way of social integration and forming a spirit of independence – or where young people find jobs during their studies or holidays. This generates some income and for higher-social-status parents is linked to the trend in more developed countries. On one hand in Romania, the family is more protective of children, which sometimes inhibits adopting such free behaviour, yet on the other hand young people can decide for these kind of trips for reasons of revolt, and set off to ‘go into the wide world’.

Spa and ‘wellness’ tourism: the tourism of survival

European trend 3 In the rest of Europe the trend, seen in TV shows and media articles, is for a concern for health and ‘wellness’ which will lead to a greater demand for health, relaxation, maintenance, beauty products and respectively for ‘wellness’ tourism. There will be a higher interest for cultural tourism and for senior citizens specially designed tours.
In Romania, the only wellness tourism is that associated with spas. At present, Romania has approximately 1,300 sources of mineral, drinking and treatment water and one third of the European thermal and mineral water sources, of which only 10-15% are exploited.[8] Unfortunately, this is a tourism of ‘survival’, in the first instance for the unwell senior citizens who try to improve their health in this way – they make up about 60% of spa tourists. Typically the resorts have low revenues and can only provide minimal service from uninvolved personnel; the hotels are in a bad condition or damaged and the treatment units contain only used old equipment.

But their advantage is that an 18-day stay is less expensive for the invalid guests than remaining at home, spending money on food and other expenses – retired pensioners pay only 50% of the amount of pension, veterans do not pay anything and others receive significant discounts. These facilities are designed especially for the unwell and disabled, providing a kind of social tourism (‘the tourism of the Ministry of Labour’), But this sector could be successfully developed as an attraction for interested people with more spending power in demanding or stressful professions. In some countries, such as Great Britain, medical doctors have been quite sceptical about the medical efficiency of spa treatments but nowadays this type of service is making a comeback.[9]

Secondly, it is a tourism of survival for operators who, in turn, prefer to ‘survive’, outside the holiday season. In Romania, spa tourism was a treatment alternative for many Romanians, especially when tourism opportunities were limited by the impossibility of travel to other countries. Because this type of tourism was supported by the authorities, workers and pensioners (including from rural areas) received treatment tickets through their trade unions to go and take ‘baths’. In this way, the infrastructure was preserved; at present, although this is limited, social insurance is trying to bring this sector to life and improve the state of health of a poor population who do not have the means for required treatments,[10] and the respective measures are not accompanied by refurbishement of the resorts’ equipment or accommodation.[11] Moreover, some resorts lack specialised medical personnel, which makes this situation even more difficult.[12]

The World Tourism Organisation (WTO) has warned us that the strategies concerning spa tourism development are misconceived compared to countries such as Bulgaria, Hungary and the Czech Republic. The Romanian spa-tourism offer does not reach European standards, with only 3% of visitors from overseas and there is a danger that this tourism sector could vanish.[13] Most of the Romanian spa resorts developed in a direction that no longer meets the requirements of the market. The offer must be diversified or Romanian tourism will decline as the trends give higher chances to ‘circuit’ tourism, meeting the tourists’ need for mobility, relaxation and fun.

Press talk of the possibility of foreign investment has appeared in a three-year forecast and seemed to lead to the revaluing of Romanian spa resorts.[14] Plans suggested preserving the traditional features but adding new components, in the case of spa treatment, yet they remain at the concept stage, and a lot of unpredictable variables need taking into account – how the Romanian economy and polity evolve, and at the international level, changes in consumer behaviour and climatic changes.

How to develop a tourism of ‘wellness’

In Romania, the high proportion of aged tourists at spa resorts on cures is due to a series of factors: the rise in the price of prescribed drugs and difficulty of accessing some medical treatments for the diseases caused by low incomes; the inefficiency of the Romanian medical system; and, last but not least, the strong faith of the Romanian people in natural treatments, supported by the vast literature in this sector or preserved throughout time, as a tradition of ‘going to bathing places’ based on the treatment tickets.

An instructive case is Brestovitsa, in neighbouring Bulgaria, about 15 km from Plovdiv, in the Thracian region. Considered a centre for Bulgarian red wine and easy to find since it is only 3 km away from the Russia–Sofia highway, Brestovitsa is promoted as a tourist destination with visits to the Todoroff vineyard, with wine tastings and sessions about wine-processing or the origin of each wood for the barrels where the wine is kept until it reaches maturity. The tourists enjoy an attractive internal ambience and view paintings commissioned from artists in a competition for illustrating the labels on the bottles. The vineyard is complemented by a very modern hotel which includes a wellness centre based on treatments with grape seeds.[15]

Wellness tourism supposes substantial investment, even hundreds of million of Euros, not only in the hotel infrastructure, but also in the equipment for the beauty and recreational programmes, since tourists need to be entertained. This involves a sustained effort by the government (for the creation of the infrastructure) alongside Romanian entrepreneurs, who need to invest in hotels and equipment.

To be concluded shortly

References

1. Cristian Hert „În primele nouă luni ale anului 2007 turismul romanesc îşi continuă trendul pozitiv” see The National Institute of Statistics http://www.insse.ro/cms/files/pdf/ro/cap20.pdf
2. Commission Europeenne du Tourisme, „Les tendances touristiques en Europe'
3. Liliana Jighira, ‘În colaps - sistemul de pensii, în cadere liberă’
4. Liliana Jighira, op. cit.
5. http://www.standard.ro/articol_10197/sistemele_de_pensii_din_europa_de_sud_est.html
6. Romania is situated on place 64 of 177 countries in a classification performed according to the human development index that combines a series of criteria, per capita income, life expectancy and standards of education. Other European countries that placed before Romania: Slovenia - 26, Cehia -31, Ungaria-35, Polonia-36. „Speranţa de viaţă la români raportată la standardele UE’, 22 february 2007
7. see Geert Hofstede, „Managementul structurilor multiculturale’, Ed. Economică, Bucureşti, 1996
8. http://www.wall-street.ro/articol/Turism/12512/Turismul-pleaca-la-bai.html
9. J. Christopher Holloway, „Business of tourism’, sixth edition, Prentice Hall Financial Times, 2002, Anglia, pag. 186
10. ‘Starting with April 2008, persons with health insurance benefit from several free services for health rehabilitation or recovery, such as mineral, plant, carbon dioxide baths, general or partial mud wrappings’,  in the article „Băi minerale, de plante şi de nămol, în serviciile medicale de bază’
11. „World War 2 medical devices and wards thet have not been refurbished for more than 15 years’ in the article „În Spitalul de Ortopedie din Eforie există aparatură veche de 60 de ani’, 30 martie 2008
12. Staţiunea Buziaş riscă să devină istorie
13. Otilia Caloian „Turismul balnear autohton, pe cale de dispariţie’ 02.04.2007
14. ‘Investiţiile imobiliare se vor orienta şi către staţiuni balneare’
15. TODOROFF WINE & SPA Complex in Brestovitsa

The authors

Daniela Tatiana Corodeanu Agheorghiesei is associate professor in the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iaşi, Romania. She teaches in management, merchandising, business ethics and ethics in public administration. She is vice-president of the Ethics Commission for Research and Technology Development and Innovation in socio-human sciences, Ministry of Education, Research and Youth (Romania).

Valentin Niţă is professor in the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iaşi, Romania. He holds a PhD in Economics and his interests include tourism development, trade and services specialization he is coordinator of the Tourism department and for Development and Promotion of Tourism including the DEPROTUR, Master’s degree. He is a leading member of the National Agency for Partnership between Universities and the Economic and Social Environment (APART) where he is particularly concerned the qualifications structure and ensuring the international compatibility, comparability and recognition of qualifications acquired within the higher education system.