CACTUS - Journal of tourism for research, education, culture, and soul

7

Authors: VIRGIL NICULA, SIMONA SPÂNU, CHRISTIAN HELL

This paper presents some opportunities for developing a new way to capitalize local resources through gastronomic tourism. Gastronomic tourism products incorporate environmental values, landscape, parts of the local culture, traditions, local cuisine, traditional costumes, local food and the rituals associated with the gastronomic experience - how foods are served and presented, ingredients, preparation methods. Identification of the culinary landscape tourist destination is one of the challenges of creating tourism products, in which an important role have the agritourist pensions from the five micro regions of Sibiu County. Gastronomy plays an indispensable role in promoting tourism at a regional and local level. Therefore, the creation of gastronomic tourism products is seen as a priority tourist destination that can offer experiences in this regard. Motivations of choosing tourist destination "Sibiu - European gastronomic region" are related to cultural and natural attractions, special events and festivals, food experiences in each microregion, gourmet connections, social interaction and emotional, but also other opportunities for recreation and entertainment. In order to organize and promote the gastronomic tourism in the rural areas of Sibiu, it is necessary the establishment of partnerships among tourism providers (households / farmers in the rural community), local authorities, other economic providers of tourism related services, travel agencies etc. Only by working together they can solve the major problems of development and promotion of this form of tourism in the context of socio-economic development of rural communities, with beneficial effects on local tourism. Without a general infrastructure development and tourist facilities, one cannot speak of a competitive tourism in either micro-regions or localities.

10

Authors: GRAZIA CALABRÒ, SIMONE VIERI

Thanks to its important naturalistic, historical, cultural and artistic heritage, Italy is one of the countries with the greatest tourist vocation in the world. Consequently, tourism is the most important productive sector in the Italian economy, with an impact just below 12% on GDP. During the long period of economic crisis that affected the major world economies, between 2008 and 2014, some parts of the Italian tourism, including seaside for example, declined. This decline, at an aggregate level, has been however balanced by the development of cultural tourism. About 37% of external demand is attributed to expenditures for holidays in art heritage cities, representing the most dynamic part of Italian tourism. Although with more modest absolute values, agritourism and food and wine tourism are dynamic parts of the Italian tourism too and, sometimes, they are linked with cultural tourism. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that the development of cultural tourism, agritourism and food and wine tourism can be a single goal of economic policy aimed at creating new growth strategies in order to overcome the effects of the economic crisis. Organizing as a single economic system the different parts of Italian tourism can be the most coherent action in order to cope with the different development needs and potentialities of Italy, whose economic system is traditionally linked to the territorial values.

14

Authors: DIANA IONCICĂ, MARIA IONCICĂ, EVA-CRISTINA PETRESCU, ANCA ATANASE

The current paper tackles the thorny issue of cultural tourism in Romania, trying to ascertain whether there is an actual chance of promoting it successfully in our country, without further damage to an already endangered national cultural patrimony. The question is whether we were facing a dilemma with little chances of being solved to our advantage – namely, if the promotion of cultural tourism would pose a threat or present an opportunity to a domain in which, unfortunately, very little has been done in recent years. The goal of the paper is twofold – it is meant, on the one hand, as a strong alarm signal, a wake-up call as to the necessity of a coherent, well-funded strategy regarding the promotion of cultural tourism in Romania, and on the other hand as a cautionary tale – one that could envisage what might happen if such a strategy were incorrectly devised and applied. Some hints in that direction are unfortunately already at hand, amply visible when considering the current situation of some essential sites to our cultural and national identity. Some of the case studies we discussed include The Danube Delta, Dacian sites, Bucovina Monasteries, or the Old Town area in our capital, Bucharest.

6-13

Authors: HUGUES SERAPHIN, MARCO PLATANIA, MANUELA PILATO

In the tourist industry destinations are competing against each other to attract visitors. In this race to seduce visitors, cultural tourism (based on heritage and identity) appears as a very popular form of tourism used by destinations. Because branding plays a major role in attracting visitors, this paper therefore examines the slogan of 139 destinations around the world. Findings reveal that slogans tend not to use heritage but instead adopt a neutral position, this is to be explained by the fact that destinations want to appeal to maximum of visitors and also because they appeal to the emotions (as opposed to a cognitive strategy).

23-31

Authors: LIVIU DEDIU, OLIMPIA STATE

Tourism service providers cannot satisfy all the demands they receive with their own resources. Sustainability comes from being part of a structure. Thus, networks with a certain degree of specialization are created and operated, in which the structural factor is intertwined with the technological one. Yet, in tourism industry, a large part of the employees joins the labour force without formal vocational training, acquiring knowledge and skills while working. More specifically, to be effective the staff of a travel agency need to use specialized working tools. Identifying a local research gap in the form of the mismatch between the capacity of specialized training in the context of the new technologies and the contemporary context of communication, this paper addresses the impact of the use of tools developed through modern information technologies and the way these new tools are ready to provide support for learning. The employee in tourism should not be formed to compete with the specialized integrated system, but to exploit it and come with added value in the provision of services.

39-48

Authors: MANUELA LILIANA MURESAN, RALUCA GEORGIANA STOIAN

Business tourism has proven to be an important part of the hospitality industry in terms of both travel volumes and generated revenue. This type of activity, far from being a novelty, has expanded and seems destined to continue to grow at a higher rate every year. Growth is particularly marked by international events that bring important financial gains to host cities, generated not only by these activities, but also by the multiplier effect of all tourism activities. The motivation for the chosen theme results from the fact that in the hospitality industry, business tourism is a segment in which a variety of events can be organized, such as: local, regional and national conferences and meetings - organized by associations and corporations, congresses and conventions, international courses, trainings and induction courses, fairs, exhibitions, product launches, motivation tourism, exchanges addressed to students and teachers, travel of government employees, etc., with major economic impact both at national and international level for the development of society. The evolution of business tourism in Bucharest provides a strengthening of business relations, investments, more efficient use of hotel structures and obvious increases in revenues. The starting point of this research is represented by an analysis of the current context of the evolution of business tourism and the identification of its potential at the level of the Capital of Romania. Our analysis shows that there is a correlation between the hotel sector specific to events organizing services and the development of the business tourism segment. The case study on the Novotel Hotel in Bucharest brings to light the following striking themes in the field of tourism: the organization of business events as an engine for economic growth and the attraction of new tourists, as well as the impact of events in the MICE industry on the reduction of seasonality in the Capital. Research based solely on the processing of secondary data does not present issues related to the subjectivity of tourists nor does it present the point of view of the providers. Thus, the analysis of the events organized at the Novotel Hotel in Bucharest during the period 2012-2016 reflects that the business tourism is specific to the area of events, conferences, business meetings, etc., and may have an effect in reducing the seasonality in Bucharest, but also in increasing the economic profit for the hotel industry.

6-14

Authors: MARIA-IRINA ANA

Ecotourism, agro-tourism, rural tourism are forms of tourism that emerged in the last century, becoming increasingly important sectors of the tourism industry worldwide. The new kinds of life-style, the evolving tourist behaviour and continuously changing customers’ preferences coupled with the widespread concern about environment, industrial heritage and sustainable development are all factors that led to the expansion of these niche market types of tourism. The objectives of this paper are to research important implications and identify significant trends of ecotourism, agro-tourism and rural tourism in the European Union, focusing on the New Member States area, as there is a lot of potential for the expansion of these forms of tourism in the region. The Old Member States earn significant income from agro-tourism, while in the New Member States this is rather an unexploited opportunity, despite the fact that the cultural heritage and number of unspoilt natural areas is much more abundant than in the West. This paper will also look at the policies in this field, as the European Union is very interested and active in supporting agro-tourism and sustainable development, and many policies, programmes and initiatives address the three types of niche tourism. Key features, economic, environmental and socio-cultural benefits, as well as current and future challenges for ecotourism, agro-tourism and rural tourism in the entire European Union, but more thoroughly in the New Member States will also be addressed, with the purpose of creating a comprehensive paper, able to convince the scholars and practitioners in the field to pay more attention to this rather new topic, as a proactive approach can enable investments and attract more tourists to the area.

24-32

Authors: STOENESCU CRISTINA

Air transport and tourism have always been interconnected, influencing each other. Over the years, as air travel has been undergoing a series of changes, tourism organizations have also been affected, developing new tourism products, establishing partnerships and reinventing the services offered. This paper focuses on the impact of air travel on the tourism industry, taking into consideration the role of the airport in the regional economic development, the new forms of tourism developed as a consequence of the different changes in the airline industry and the recent position of air travel in the creation of tourism packages. At the same time, an analysis of data was made in order to highlight the role of air travel in tourism development in Romania.

41-46

Authors: IOANA MARIN

In this paper we show how a constant and efficient collaboration between the school and the local community is needed in order to obtain positive effects and results in the pre-scholar education. The analysis is inspired from the Italian public school in which we have been directly involved in the framework of an experience exchange program as teacher in the public Romanian pre-scholar system.

6-13

Authors: VASILE (ILE) FLORENTA LARISA

Medical tourism, considered the newest phenomena but, as well, an old activity of travelling on health purposes, is increasingly more often the subject of articles, seminars or conferences. Considering the factors that determine the motivation for medical tourism (investments in the health system infrastructure, the international certification and accreditation for medical services and suppliers, lower costs or better quality of medical procedures, political and social stability, excellent tourism infrastructure, good reputation regarding clinical excellence, implementation of the newest medical technologies, highly educated medical personnel, the insurance policies portability) and taking into account the conclusions of previous exploratory researches in health behavior, one of the possible segments of medical tourists is Diaspora. This paper highlights the decision process and preferences of tourists from Diasporas related to medical tourism in Romania. It uses data from a pilot survey that emphasis the medical travel motivations of Romanian patients resident in EU, Canada and USA. The first determinant is the cost, but there are several other motivations driving the decision to choose Romania as a medical tourism destination, such as confidence or cultural affinity.

26-31

Authors: MISOC IRINA

This research focuses on the relationship between team cohesion and team performance in the tourism field.The literature review showed that researchers have found different results on the relationship between these two variables. The present case study was based on the hypothesis that, in the organizations that offer support to their employees, the teams with strong cohesion obtain better results compared with those with poor cohesion. The study was conducted in eight teams that share similar characteristic. The survey method was used for gathering data with two structured questionnaires: one questionnaire used for measuring the performance of the eight teams and another questionnaire used for measuring the team cohesion. The 5 point Likert scale was used to analyze both team performance and team cohesion. As a conclusion, the study revealed that the hypothesis is true, and the strong cohesive teams obtained higher scores in terms of performance, but the relationship between the two variables is more complex and should be studied in detail in future studies.

40-52

Authors: ANDREI EMMA - DENISA

Recruitment and selection processes are one of the most important steps in a company beeing repeated periodically. Through them, the company attracts and hires staffing that are considered to have a major influence on the company's success. Attracting the younger generation can be challenging for companies, given their current need to be addressed in a different manner, in an innovative way. It is important to have their attributes acknowledged, but different ones and not those that are already reported in the CV. According to studies conducted by various companies, young people need leadership programs, mentoring or coaching. To better understand these concepts, I carried out an analysis of the company Catalyst Solutions which is a human resources company and it deals exclusively with the recruitment and selection processes for employing companies. Using qualitative research through a questionnaire, I could analyze the knowledge of students and graduates based on processes of recruitment and selection. In terms of research, young people want to be active in the labor market but feel a certain uneasiness when dealing with recruitment basis. They consider that processes can be sometimes too harsh and they believe that they are not appreciated at their true value.

5-11

Authors: ŢĂPESCU (STOIAN) ALINA IOANA MIHAELA, IORGULESCU MARIA-CRISTINA

In the current business environment, it is considered natural to see people from different generations working together. As it seems to be widely accepted that each generation has its own attributes that reflect in a unique manner on the way work is perceived, managers are being confronted with new challenges in managing human resources. As a result, the paper underlines the main differences between the three currently active generations on the labor market (Baby Boomers, generation X and generation Y) and their implications on the workplace. The main purpose of the article is to present bachelors’ of business administration perceptions of the factors considered important for an ideal workplace and whether the hospitality and tourism industry is able to offer these factors. Consequently, the paper brings forward an exploratory research, conducted using a questionnaire-based survey on 2015 bachelor graduates at the Faculty of Business and Tourism (Bucharest University of Economic Studies): out of the 320 students who have been enrolled in the senior year (2014-2015 academic year), 237 graduates completed the questionnaire. The results of the survey indicate that generation Y members’ most valued workplace characteristics are having promotion possibilities, working with people who cooperate effectively, having free time for personal life and having the opportunity of receiving high salary increases, as they advance in their career. These findings are compared to the conclusions of previous studies presented in the literature developed on this subject. The results of the study are relevant for the tourism industry as they reflect the needs and expectations of generation Y, therefore enabling managers to develop new human resources practices in order to attract and retain young graduates and determine them to become loyal, engaged employees. Considering the limitations of the research, the theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

20-24

Authors: GÁL TÜNDE

The general objective of the current paper is to study consumer behaviour in a relationship with sustainability principles, as in recent decades, tourism industry has rapidly developed and brought various impacts to the nations and destinations. The specific objective of the current research is to investigate the consumer behaviour at sport events, to provide a deeper understanding of the behaviour of tourists engaging in sport events, such as motivation, expectations, underlying reasons for choices and decision making, what do they seek from their experience, what is their spending willingness during these events, and in what matter are they behaving according to the sustainability principles. The research methodology was based on field research, by collecting data through questionnaires and interviews from sport tourists to find out why individuals engage in sport events. Results indicate the typology of sport tourists based on socio-economic status, motivation and expectations. Sport tourism is an important part of both sport and tourism business generating large revenues and reshaping local communities and can stand as a basis for effective marketing to generate added value on tourism product development, but in the same time there is a high need for education about sustainability and environmental awareness on all levels in order to obtain a positive evolution of behaviour regarding sustainability in general and especially at sport events.

33-44

Authors: GĂMAN GEORGE

In the context in which society is evolving at a high speed and lifestyle is becoming increasingly stressful, the tourist, respectively patient-tourist motivations and preferences meet changes also. In these conditions, health resorts are forced to fold on the actual situation and to adjust their tourist offer for meeting the customer’s needs and for keeping, at least, the number of tourist arrivals. The actual paper tried to ensure if the motivations and preferences of Romanian modern patient-tourist correspond with the conclusions of global trend described in specialized literature, through survey amongst residents of Moineşti municipality, Târgu Ocna and Slănic Moldova health resorts. According to the specialized literature, the modern tourist is well informed, he has a higher level of knowledge, he is looking for an active and sprinkled stay with unique and complex activities. The results highlighted several similarities and differences between specialized literature and the present study, showing that Romania’s situation does not entirely correspond with the global trend.