Caring and Sharing: The Cultural Heritage Environment as an Agent for Change

The paper reveals some important characteristics of cultural heritage management (CHM) vis-à-vis the recent requirements of sustainable development (SD) taking into consideration the economic, social and environmental pillars of SD and the necessity of an adequate system of CHM indicators. The general conclusions are that CH, if well managed, represents an asset for a national economy with important contribution to GDP growth, employment and quality of life.

Under the umbrella of the MIS ETC 2617 ALECTOR, a project within the ENPI CBC BLACK SEA JOINT OPERATIONAL PROGRAMME 2007–2013, a novel cultural heritage infrastructure with three components has been developed to communicate local heritage to international audiences. A cross-border partnership, operating in seven countries (Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Georgia and Turkey), has developed standards for heritage tourism by involving key stakeholders, local communities and citizens into heritage planning in a bottom-up and training process. The project has been completed in a 30 month period with an overall budget of 1,065,894.00 EUR. The main result SCRIPTORAMA, a three-component Open Street Museum, accessible through 90 Quick Response Codes in the territory and as eBook at the Appstore and Google Play, is delivering the heritage experience by engaging in a constant dialogue heritage suppliers and heritage users. This paper examines (a) how cognitive-emotional and multi-sensory experiences can foster an (inter)-active knowledge acquisition pattern for non-captive audiences at heritage places; (b) how to integrate new technologies into the cultural heritage experience to support the informal learning modus; and (c) how to democratize the mission of heritage institutions by promoting self-reflective and critically thinking visitors who can perceive, reshape and organize heritage places into a participatory public space accessible by all.

The neo-endogenous development paradigm advocates the democratic use of local resources in order to improve the quality of life of local residents in a given area through intense social and economic interaction with the global system. A theoretical basis for this development paradigm could be the “culture economy”, which dictates that a locality, through its local institutions and the civic society, should promote its self-perceived distinct territorial identity both at the local and the extra-local level in order to achieve its development goals, especially through tourism. This is due to the fact that the local identity has been recognised as a decisive factor that favours neo-endogenous development through the processes of democratic legitimacy and community empowerment. Herein, we examine the practical implementation of the European Union “Alector” project and its local pilot implementation project “Tobacco Perfumes. Drama 1840–1940. Stories, Passions, Protagonists” under the theoretical framework of the culture economy in the specific area of Drama, Greece. The “Alector” project, implemented by nine (9) multi-level partners in seven (7) countries (namely Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia and Turkey) from 2014 to 2016 was funded by the Black Sea Basin Joint Operational Programme 2007–2013. The project sought to develop quality heritage tourism standards in selected areas of the Black Sea Basin; as such it demonstrated a great potential in as far as cultural assets’ rejuvenation and local identity formation and promotion is concerned both at the local and the extra-local level. We argue that local cultural assets, despite the current practical difficulties of their rejuvenation due to the economic crisis in Greece, can contribute to the formation of a specific place identity that could in turn trigger a broader post-productive development process. In this respect, it is of utmost importance to ensure the initiation of an involvement and consumption process by all segments of local society in order to ensure the sustainability of the culture economy approach and the creation of a long-term development repertoire for the locality. We finally provide practical implementation suggestions for similar projects falling into the culture economy approach.

Information appears as a commodity in modern society and the sphere of tourism is defined as an information-rich service that speaks of a direct information connection from tourist activity. Tourism in the modern interpretation cannot exist without the transfer of information. It acts as an information-rich service that shows once again the important role of information in the field of tourism. In this context, there is the phenomenon of tourism as an industry of information service. The paper deals with the information services industry and information technologies and focuses on its implementation in tourism industry. The researchers try to find a solution on how information technologies could increase the effectiveness of tourism business, so they introduce a model that consists of eight components (information, users, information resources, suppliers, information system, information processes, etc.). Then, the model is tested in hospitality and tourism industry companies. As a result of the test, the authors highlight some points to be improved in the model. To sum up, the model in its final version can assist and allow increasing the competitiveness of the tourism business. The authors conclude that the performance of the company also can be improved through computerization and informatization processes, especially in such an information-rich industry as tourism.

Călimani National Park is situated in Transylvania, Romania, and was established with the purpose of helping to preserve biodiversity of flora and fauna, to maintain the natural geographic framework and natural habitats. Also, the sustainable development of the area is aimed at the efficient use of natural resources, so as to meet the main objective of the Park. It is desirable to create conditions for the development of educational activities, scientific research and recreation, beneficial activities for the preservation and transmission of local traditions to tourists. In this respect, local and national authorities want to invest in infrastructure, education, and research to turn Călimani National Park into a national and international tourist attraction, involving locals in the development, conservation, and sustainability of the region. The aim of this research is to identify the needs for improval in fulfilling the main objective of the Park and to seek solutions to preserve popular culture through smart economy.

Tourism is a crucial factor that contributes to a country’s economic growth. Nowadays, one of the greatest challenges worldwide is to diminish poverty since an increasing number of individuals suffer from this phenomenon. Throughout time, in many countries, tourism worked and still works as an economic development engine, contributing both directly and indirectly to the creation of working places in the economy. Tourism is one of the sectors of economic activity that can offer multiple opportunities to stimulate labour market growth with profound implications for the economic development level of countries that have a high level of poverty. Therefore, for some countries tourism represents the main source of foreign currency. If these revenues are directed towards poverty diminishing, the poorer categories can benefit from the inclusion of the local people in tourism activities, with positive effects on the attenuation of the current level of poverty. The aim of this research is to analyse the correlation between the activities from the tourism industry and the poverty level in the countries of the European Union. The employed research methodology relies on the correlation analysis, accomplished through the use of the data sets collected from the Web page of the European Commission related to the revenues obtained from tourism and the poverty level in the countries of the European Union. In order to highlight the differences existing between the EU member states, we will make a comparison using the cluster analysis. This paper aims to reveal that tourism cannot be regarded as the only factor for poverty diminishing but may have an extremely important contribution. Taking into account the size of the tourism industry in many countries of the European Union, we can state that a change of the approach regarding this industry’s importance for the economic development may have remarkable effects on diminishing the level of poverty.

According to the data provided by the National Institute of Statistics, in Romania, in 2015, there were recorded almost ten million tourist arrivals in accommodation establishments, of which foreign tourist arrivals represented less than a quarter (22.55%). After 2000, tourist arrivals have registered an upward trend, interrupted only during the global economic and financial crisis in 2008–2009. Over 57% of foreign tourists arrivals in Romania in 2015 came from the European Union (mostly from Hungary and Bulgaria), and from Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. In 2014, only 5% of companies in Romania were operating in the hotel and restaurant industry, their turnover representing less than 1% of the total value. The average length of stay for Romanian tourists ranges between 2 days (at the mountain) and over 3 days (at the seaside). Foreign tourist arrivals are mostly concentrated in mountain areas, in Bucharest, and in other cities as well. This paper identifies and explores—using methods of descriptive statistics and factor analysis—patterns existing in relationships between different tourism statistical indicators (arrivals of Romanian tourists, arrivals of foreign tourists, overnight staying for Romanian and foreign tourists, tourism accommodation capacity, tourism accommodation establishments, favorite tourism destinations). Thus, there are analyzed the essential components and characteristics of the main types of tourism developed in Romania and some measures of economic and social policy are proposed, aiming at optimizing tourism activity in Romania.

The Republic of Croatia is a country with significant number and large variety of autochthonous products. In recent years, more attention is paid to the importance of local products and their protection at national and even European level. Autochthonic products in Croatia can be protected by the marks of origin, geographical origin, and traditional reputation. Although there are great numbers of authentic products in Croatia, just some of them are protected. Very important are autochthonic ecological products (in the first order produced on the organic farms and agricultural households in Croatia), but they still do not have adequate market position. The aim of the paper is to explore domestic tourists’ perception toward autochthonous products quality and placement. For the purpose of this paper, we have carried out the primary research in the area of Dubrovnik. According to the results of the research which included the sample of 120 respondents, it is visible that tourists are satisfied with the autochthonous products quality, but on the other side they are not satisfied with availability, promotional activities, and distribution channels which have been used in autochthonous product placement policy. The domestic tourists think that there are only few outlets where they can buy autochthonous products what is huge disadvantage because the participants want to buy products but they do not know how and where (because of bad product availability, inadequate promotion, and small number of retail outlets). They find out that the price is acceptable, but they also find that there is not always value for money. It is sure that autochthonous products have target group in the market, but it is necessary to protect it better (and more) and take care that all elements (not only quality) fit to the clients. They create national identity, but also make recognizable tourist destination on the domestic and international markets.

The main problem facing tourism companies, but not their only problem, is lack of finance. Banks provide financial solutions, but expensive ones, difficult and inconvenient but with their own money, companies cannot grow too much and then surely we have to look at what other chances, what other possibilities the companies have for financing themselves. One possibility is financing through the securities market. This chapter includes an array of information about funding and capital markets as well as how to attract investors to support a company’s development.

Climate change is an important and immediate threat, while the effects are felt in various sectors, including agriculture, fishing, transportation, construction, tourism, insurance. Nowadays, climate change impact is felt more strongly (e.g. heat and cold waves, modification of season’s heavy rainfall and floods, prolonged droughts), requiring adaptation and mitigation measures for stakeholders at various social and economic levels. In this regard, awareness strategies and formulation of adaptation measures are necessary. In addition, in order to become aware of the climate change effects on natural and cultural heritage, communication campaigns across all sectors are required in near future. The present paper aims to underline the impact of climate change on natural and cultural heritage, to identify the particularities of climate change effects in Romania and to formulate some recommendation to raise awareness on climate change impact among stakeholders involved in protection and conservation of natural and cultural heritage.

Millennials or Generation Y are young people born in the last two decades of the past millennium. They represent the most dynamic generation in history, with a high-purchasing power, which due to the increased technological environment has behaviours, values and attitudes different than previous generations. Given the importance that the younger generation will have in the near future enhancement of heritage objectives should take account of the wishes of this large segment of consumers. This study aims to find solutions to development planning one of the most iconic heritage objectives near the capital of Romania—Palace Mogoşoaia, considering ideas received from representatives of Generation Y.

Due to the abundance of heritage issues interpretation and in order to facilitate analysis of the transformation of an object or site—through expertise and instrumentation—into a topic open to long-lasting cultural consumption, researchers have recently imposed the concept of patrimonialization. Being able to promote and manage sustainable development by capitalizing both natural segments, as well as the cultural and intangible segments of universal heritage, patrimonialization added—from an interdisciplinary perspective—to social interrogations of heritage interpretation, those specific for the necessity to ensure environmental, economic, and social sustainability. This paper will emphasize the importance of heritage component for sustainable development, as well as the fact that patrimonialization provides to sustainable development the opportunity to become part of the heritage. Following an integrated approach, patrimonialization implies that the implementation of all activities related to heritage will be introduced in the service of sustainable development. Thus, policies, strategies, and measures for conservation, protection, and promotion of heritage should stimulate, on the one hand, civic engagement and critical attitude towards protecting and respecting local and universal heritage values and, on the other hand, transnational cooperation in implementing the most appropriate ways for their integration. Therefore, having the quality of an alternative device for economic recovery, heritage of Southeast Europe must be patrimonialized to ensure sustainable reconciliation between entrepreneurship that reflects emergence of regional markets, and consumption of heritage, between economic development and the limitations of environmental protection and between museological local traditionalism and the expansion of international networks of living heritage interpretation. In the field of climate change, there is a clear opportunity for all sectors linked to sustainability and also for heritage. Many of the initiatives of heritage conservation stated that sustainability strategies and compliance are imposed by respect for the environment and climate change constraints. Despite the fact that identification of heritage items was already resolved by instrumentalization of interpretation process, its placement in the field of sustainable development could be done only by interdisciplinary targeting of correlation elements.

Observations show a growing interest in cultural heritage, which seems compensated and opposite to globalization. The individuality of a territory is determined by the cultural heritage, the culture of human relations, from the memory of what is the environment—a measure of quality of life. Cultural tourism is a process in which man strives to regain its proximity to a specific social and spatial environment with lots of authentic identity and memory. Cultural heritage must be present not only in the leisure of the individual and society, but to become part of their everyday life to enhance the value system. Cultural tourism is a major sector of the creative industry. Creative industries are an important tool for socioeconomic development and heralded for urban and regional revitalization. The economy is always influenced by consumption and “production” in the cultural sphere, creating cultural heritage—tangible and intangible, and creative products. The creative industry is working in close collaboration with the tourism industry. An important step in the development of creative industries, on which their growth depends, is to start to work on four themes: access to finance; construction of incubators; initiatives for clusterization; and professional interconnections within the creative industries. Cultural and creative industries usually include cultural tourism, which can increase the added value and create new jobs. By promoting creativity and innovation, the communities will retain their cultural diversity and will enhance economic performance. All activities in the creative industries could develop much more successfully if bound and are incorporated into a single mechanism, to set up and work creatively in tourist clusters.

PEGA is an intensive training programme for tourism professionals funded by the ESF 20017–2013 Programme. In 2015, it was commonly undertaken by the University of the Aegean, the Panteion University of Athens and the University of Thessaly aiming to update the knowledge of tourism professionals. A Cultural Heritage Module has specifically instructed tourism professionals into the design and delivery of cognitive–emotional experiences for visitors at heritage places, addressing three main challenges: A. the discontinuity of supply and demand in the production of smart heritage that is disabling the consumption of quality and highly customized heritage products and services at local level; B. the need for multilateral and transparent collaborations and the creation of an effective stakeholder network; and C. the need for real-time accessibility of the cultural product per se servicing the connected consumer market. The training has demonstrated that interconnected professional networks and enhanced skills to exploit the local heritage potential with new heritage consumption models is a sine qua non condition for the future of tourism professionals while at the same time it is pointing towards new opportunities for structural changes in the heritage sector.

Today when the situation in the world is changing at an accelerated rate, there is an actual question of the global heritage management. The global heritage management is a condition of sustainable civilization development. It is known there are a lot of different types and levels of heritage. Therefore, this paper pays attention to the knowledge and innovations management problems as a part of global heritage. It is suggested an author’s approach to the global heritage management and its model in this paper.

The paper aims to identify the competitive advantages of the tourism sector in Romania and to conduct radiography of the SMEs in this sector, including their concern in which regards the R&D activities, as part of smart specialization strategies promoted by the EU. There are also studied the opportunities in exploiting the Romania’s competitive advantages by the SMEs in the tourism sector through development of innovative clusters in the area, which enhance the performance of R&D activities and increase the competitiveness of companies. There are also analysed the sources of funding from EU programs for the 2014–2020 financial framework as support for increasing competitiveness and regional development through support and intelligent promotion of tourism sector. At the end of the paper, solutions and courses of action (policies) in this area are offered, leading to national and regional sustainable economic development.

Protection of forest cover has a primary importance in conserving natural heritage, as well as sustaining other forms of life and land use. As argued in our previous research, sustainable forest management (SFM) is therefore supported by the necessity to preserve, value, and develop forest ecosystem services and the total economic value of forests, as part of a country’s natural heritage. This chapter will emphasize the role of virgin forests in Romania, as a part of cultural heritage. Our approach is motivated by the need to protect and increase awareness of the significant heritage represented by the virgin forest in Romania. We start by highlighting some of the most important current developments concerning forests in the European Union (EU) and Romania. In this respect, we analyze the ranking of European countries, including Romania, with regard to their share of forestry areas across Europe. In Romania, what stands out is the peculiar increase of forest areas in the last decade, which can be explained by the changes in methodology used for classification and data gathering, due to the new Forestry Code. The next section of our chapter is dedicated to the importance of virgin forests as natural heritage sites. These are mostly represented by natural beech forests located in several remote counties. The value of Romanian virgin forest is proven by the current ongoing nomination process to include them in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage List. Romania’s virgin forests are a national, European and global heritage—so the task of protecting this natural heritage should not be left solely to the private forest owners. It is required to have the intervention of the state and efforts by public authorities to continue having and sustainably manage these forests. The impulse for protection of such forests came from NGO and activists in biodiversity protection, foresters etc.

Material and immaterial culture and both economy and economics are part of one and only reality, contrary to views placing the “priceless” things out of the scope of mundane calculi. What keeps together any community are not only the aesthetic joys or sober rituals, but productive relations within the framework of cooperative division of labour, for culture is not floating into nothingness, but overwrites the material world of scarce resources which is either governed by a critical infrastructure of property rights or gets ungovernable at all. In order to culturally thrive, communities are obliged to discover those very institutions responsible for peace and prosperity which culture (in the “anthropological” sense) prepares, following époques of social selection, and on which culture (in the “artefactual” sense) roots its desired sustainability. Our thesis, all the more acute in a post-socialist society, is that private property rights link individuals in communities, by giving them sound incentives, information and instruments to create, share and bequeath tangible and intangible culture, that is the offshoot of the freedom of expression, of the freedom to produce and of the freedom to trade.

Conservation criminology is an emerging interdisciplinary field which integrates elements of criminology, environmental science, and risk management in order to provide a realistic framework for the analysis of the problems related to conservation of natural resources and biodiversity. It comprises broad categories of environmental crimes and risks, including, but not limited to illegal lodging, illicit wildlife trade, corruption in environmental matters and ecoterrorism. The new international and regional developments indicate an increasing threat to natural resources conservation from criminal networks which seek to increase their profits through hard to detect and reduced penal liability activities, resorting to environmental crimes in order to complement their illicit activities or even as a main operation. The impact of such crimes is cumulative and persistent, having a twofold negative effect, on environment, mostly reflected in depletion or contamination of resources, and on local sustainable development, reducing opportunities for tourism, eco-agriculture, or other environmental low-impact activities. This paper argues that conservation criminology is well suited and could provide valuable insights in the analysis of the risks to safeguarding natural heritage, through integration into environmental governance, specifically for the regions which are confronted with threats generated by criminal networks.

The risk derives from people’s incapacity to foresee the future, and it is acknowledged only when the possible outcomes have a fairly significant degree of uncertainty. Risk cannot be completely eliminated by man when future results are influenced by random factors. However, it lies in its power to reduce the risk to a level that makes it acceptable. Never, in the history of mankind, larger monetary losses have existed. In this case, two external elements influence the process of making economic decisions, with contrasting effects. The first element is an external one and refers to the accuracy of the obtained results, which of course needs to be maximized, because with increasing precision of the results, the probability of an error decreases. The latter factor relates to the timeframe in which economic decision has to be made, which is increasingly transforming into a luxury characteristic afforded by few entities. This scientific approach aims to identify the corporate governance development favorable factors, and it is based on a specific research methodology, consisting of techniques and methods used to achieve the proposed objective. The paper approaches, from an interdisciplinary perspective, the corporate governance efficiency, a relatively new theme compared to other fields, but which presents an ever-increasing interest. The research falls within a positivist scientific endeavor, which is not deprived of some critical and interpretative approaches that aim at explaining different concepts, as well as highlighting the possible solutions for the identified problems.

Currently, the human impact exerted on the taxonomic diversity of vegetation and wildlife is very high. Human activities erode biological resources and reduce biodiversity. Biodiversity loss is the effect of agricultural and forestry intensive activities, industrialization, advanced fragmentation of natural habitats by infrastructure and urbanization, water, air pollution and tourism development. After accession to the European Union (EU), one of Romania’s priorities was to increase protection of its natural areas. In these circumstances, the Romanian Academy initiated a project entitled “Natural resources—strategic reserves, what we use and what we let to the future generations,” which aimed to realize the primary aspects regarding conservation of biodiversity and protection of natural areas in Romania. This chapter aims to present the main findings of this research project.

Revitalizing rural areas can be done on the basis of innovative ideas provided by well-trained staff with high skill levels. Education and training should be a priority due to the continuing high rate of growth in the demand for new skills in the labor market. Currently, employers are seeking, in the labor market, people with social skills, computer skills, foreign language speakers, and people who demonstrate initiative, coming up with new ideas which may be productive for businesses. People have become more sensitive about the environment, they are more educated and seek quality in both services and products. This cannot be provided without the assistance of stakeholders (local communities, authorities, entrepreneurs, employees, trainers, etc.) who also need to be trained in accordance with their duties and roles.

Using official statistics at national level, the paper aims to contribute to tourism studies in Romania from the perspective of employment in tourism industry. Romania’s specific characteristics will be identified in terms of quality and structure of employment. National level is considered for analysing the social productivity of labour in terms of GDP and employment for the tourism sector. The quality of employment is reviewed also in terms of permanency of job and average seniority of work with the same employer. The employment is analysed from the perspective of full-time and part-time activity, age groups and educational attainment level.

Tourism activity is an important driver of the global economy, ensuring monetary circulation, through tourism receipts, to other economic circuits. By developing tourism activities, countries can increase their national production, with a positive effect on their Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Tourism services and cultural products should be promoted together in development efforts, as generators for regional progress in areas with partially valued heritage potential. A strategic and integrated approach of sustainable cultural heritage tourism development must include all types of externalities, both positive and negative, and should be included in local policies for development as a priority, offering economically driven opportunities. Intensive development of tourism, which contributes to an increased added value, must be implemented in services through technology. Cultural heritage, promoted through tourism, creates jobs, drives innovation, supports public services development and local entrepreneurship (including transport and communication infrastructures), generates prosperity, and encourages participation of citizens. This chapter presents proposals and recommendations for national policies and strategies for ensuring that inbound tourism, based on current national and cultural heritage, constitutes a supplementary factor to economic growth in the region.

The weather is an important factor that affects the businesses, because the climate change determined the intensification of natural phenomenon, sudden temperature changes or large amounts of rainfall or snowfall. The traditional instruments offered by insurance industry are not suitable for these new challenges determined by climate change. A new market was born, and new tools for weather risk management appeared. The weather derivatives are traded on OTC market and on stock exchange. The article is focused on the use of the weather derivatives by the companies from tourism industry. Taking in account the success of weather derivatives traded on Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group, the authors of this paper analysed the possibilities of tourism industry’s companies from other parts of the world to cover risks arising from weather.

Sometimes regarded as not only one of the dimensions of sustainability but even the central pillar of sustainable development, cultural sustainability is itself an agent, lever and catalyst for non-destructive socio-economic and demographic transformation. Defined as the ability to preserve the cultural identity and to ensure consistency and congruency between the future developments and the cultural value of a community, achieving cultural sustainability seems a continuously increasing challenge in the current global socio-demographic landscape. In the context of highly unpredictable and uncontrollable challenges stemming from the local as well as global environment, this paper looks into the potential of social innovation, through its intrinsic features, to serve the strategic objectives of preserving cultural values and heritage, at local level. Also, it may prove a valuable lever to reconcile social, economic and cultural interests and challenges critical to local sustainable development. Beside some theoretical considerations, the authors will draw on available good practice examples from the Romanian as well as international experience.

Changing Europe to be smart, sustainable and inclusive, able to generate and manage high employment levels, productivity, and cohesion is a still goal which is hard to attain which launches several challenges in the field of growth. With a background of deep structural changes, and also some extremely favorable developments, the tourism industry has turned into a sector playing a decisive role in attaining Europe 2020 goals. Cultural heritage is a fundamental resource of sustainable development, but also a basic factor for differentiating the touristic products. In this respect, we can notice that cultural heritage has as a background the need of integrating the touristic resource (natural and cultural) within the local community, but also the need to avoid that this process would lead to alteration, deterioration or even loss of the cultural heritage. The attractiveness of a tourist destination depends on the degree to which it succeeds in satisfying demand. In this context, the role of cultural heritage is defining, due to its uniqueness, and to the multitude of individualized possibilities in some of its complex packages, based on natural resources, cultural–historical heritage, personalized services, etc. Cultural heritage, especially for low-income communities, represents an important asset and a significant source of finance for local budgets. Promoting smart buildings on the internet and creating digital access solution for them, may lead to a new understanding in the public administration of smart cities. Our chapter aims to point out the opportunities emerging for small communities in the cultural heritage management area.

Global society has experienced a radical transformation due to massive social, demographic, technological, and economic shifts in recent years. Today, there are questions about how technology will affect society in the future. New technological equipment and tools have started to be used in museums. Contemporary museums cannot be imagined without such technical achievements, hence the use of these technological innovations in museums is very significant to reflect the features and characteristics of this era. The main reason for the use of the most advanced technology in museums originates from collaboration between universities, museums, and the private sector. The use of information and communication technology at the beginning of the 21st century is important for museums. This chapter examines areas where technology is used in museums and considers exhibitions organized recently utilizing technology in Turkish museums.

Paper presents the Trail of the Romania Ancient History at the Black Sea Coast from Constanta County, created and implemented within ALECTOR Project—Collaborative networks of Multilevel Actors to advance quality standards for heritage tourism at Cross Border Level. The trail includes ten assets from Constanta County as follows: the Museum of National History and Archaeology from Constanta, the Roman Edifice with Mosaic from Constanta, the Archaeological Park from Constanta, Tropeum Traiani Monument from Adamclisi, Tropeum Traiani Fortress from Adamclisi, Tropeum Traiani Museum from Adamclisi, Histria Fortress, Capidava Fortress, Callatis Fortress and Callatis Archaeology Museum. The project from Romania focuses on Constanta County heritage assets and their values in an effort to create and promote The Trail of the Romania Ancient History at the Black Sea Coast. The trail is designed for the visitors who want to learn about 2000 years of history in 2 days.

In the European Union (EU), the tourism sector in 2012–2013 represented over 5% of GDP, providing over 7 million jobs. Rural tourism is universally accepted as a type of travel practiced in rural areas. Buildings in these areas are small, usually present architectural interest, and are decorated in a style reminiscent of traditional homes. Rural tourism may feature traditional local gastronomy and most often is conducted within a family system. “Rural tourism is a concept that includes tourist activity organized and led by the local population, based on a close connection with the environment, natural and human”. Tourism in rural areas has been maintained in its authentic form practiced, but was shaped, appreciated and requested the evolvement of civilization amid the higher phenomena of industrialization and urbanization. Rural tourism in its pure form should be located in rural areas, be functional from a rural point of view, be small in scale, both in terms of construction and settlements, and represent the traditional environment, economy, history, and location.

A furnishing project has been started to exhibit the carpets carrying some of the most distinguished characteristics of Turkish Islamic Civilization between thirteenth and nineteenth century. Museum allocation design was performed, and restorations were planned to carry out the functionality of the building in an effective way. Fifty-two ancient carpets and 50 ancient rugs were controlled for this purpose. During preparation process of the project, studies were initiated to determine the current situation. Some particular issues such as horizontal layout of the building, areal division, venues, and sizes of the carpets were examined.

Anthropogenic and intangible cultural heritage are the basis for socioeconomic development of certain areas. Cultural tourism is one of the sub-sectors of the economy that is developing dynamically, especially if RDI and ICT (Web site and database) are used. For detection, conservation, preservation, protection, stimulation, socialization, maintenance, management and promotion of cultural values also need to use RDI and ICT. In today’s world of global challenges and drastic upheavals, sustainability of cultural heritage and cultural tourism is very vulnerable. Development activity and innovation, communication and information technologies are unbelievable need for stability. New significant developments and innovations that can change the tourism industry are associated with the introduction of ICT. General utilization of ICT, Internet, and mobile smart devices (for information, booking, and payment function) in tourism will create a direct approach for the tourists to communicate with tour operators and other service providers. The use of broadband Internet access to ICT increases the value and quality of travel services and products without raising the price, while supporting cluster associations in the sector. Development and enrichment of promotional services and products must be based on ICT and its dissemination. Use of RDI and ICT to promote business and services in the field of tangible and intangible cultural heritage would be a decisive step toward better practices. Here are presented the logical model and the technology of the process leading to elaboration of a marketing municipality profile of developing cultural tourism. The steps that are necessary for its construction and the profile itself must be unified and standardized for all municipalities to obtain a synergistic and multiplier effect.

The phenomenon of cultural heritage is a treasure that narrates the common history to the people of a nation, strengthens the feelings of solidarity and unity among them, and is shared by everybody. In this context, the works of art created in Beysehir by Turkish presence which has continued from eleventh century until today still exist uniquely also across the world. The objective of this study is to demonstrate the cultural heritage works of Beysehir and to attract attention of authorities on this matter.

Nowadays, tourism has an enormous impact on the economy of many regions. However, not all regions are able to provide long-term sustainable tourism development in their territory. One of the most important causes of problems in the development of regional tourism is the imperfection of the regional system of tourism management. The article presents the study of sustainable tourism and investigates the conditions of the approach of modern tourism to this model. We analysed the impact of sustainable tourism on social processes. The article explores both positive effect of tourism on the economy of the region and negative consequences, primarily the problems of sociocultural character. The paper offers a number of measures to improve the management of tourism at the regional level. Their implementation will contribute to the self-development of tourism; it will increase the interest of local authorities and communities in the improvement of the quality of tourism resources, development of social infrastructure, transport, communications, telecommunication systems, culture, folk art and crafts.

The fruitful conjugation of two factors (Romania’s EU accession on 1 January 2007 and the fact that there is a large number of cultural and tourist landmarks in Dobrudja) led to the implementation of various national or cross-border cultural and tourist programmes. Museum of National History and Archeology, Constanta, depositary of a valuable cultural heritage, was partner in numerous such projects, among which a significant part was dedicated to promoting various national or cross-border cultural routes. Despite the generous and comprehensive concept, many of these cultural routes have fallen into oblivion, soon after the project was finished. We may mention here routes that included religious landmarks, art monuments or historic and archaeological monuments, many of them being unique in the country or in SE Europe (Roman Edifice with Mosaic in Constanta, the Monastic Cave Complex from Basarabi-Murfatlar, Triumphal Monument at Adamclisi). Most of the projects implemented in Dobrudja, either with European or with national funding, were based almost exclusively on promoting the cultural and natural heritage and not on finding solutions to the fundamental problems of this region. Present paper aims to identify the causes of this situation and possible solutions to revitalize these cultural routes in order to achieve the initial goals: promoting the historic and archaeological heritage and increasing the benefits for local communities. For an efficient tourism, it is not enough to create mere touristic routes, to highlight points of interest on a map, as long as the reality on the ground does not meet the expectations of the ones interested. Discovery of monuments and points of interest have a positive effect only as long as a contribution it is made to their preservation and protection. In this case, it does not suffice only to promote, but also to preserve the cultural heritage for sustainable exploitation from a cultural, touristic and economic point of view. As curators, we have approached this case study by observing the contribution of historic and archaeological landmarks on the efficiency of this type of projects. In order to do so, we have collected data about the 16 cultural projects, in which our institution was involved, either as applicant, partner or just subject of the project.

The authors highlight the value of the communication by means of symbols in the context of tourism, a kind of communication that helps individuals learn, in a rather short time, the culture and the cultural heritage of a people or of a community. The verbal symbols, object and gesture-like, spatial ones, etc., become in the touristic language visual attractions, edible, dancing, musical ones, etc., aiming to describe the constant historic effort, a defining one for a society and a culture, in order that it may preserve its tangible and intangible cultural heritage by means of the historical memory. The authors argue that the basic symbols of a culture represent a generous potential, always attractive for tourism development. It is because they represent very efficient tools for accomplishing the objectives assumed by tourism. The paper analyses and presents several main symbols of the communities from the Republic of Moldova, with significant parallels in the culture of other states from a large geographical area. They underline the necessity to offer local communities and touristic agents the possibility to develop local specific artistic activities that maintain the viability of the cultural heritage in all its acknowledged manifestations, by offering it an international cultural reception. The innovation of the project consists in identifying and promoting at a cross-boundary-level common heritage value. These values fit best of all the touristic practice of learning the unique originality, considered in the whole world, of three axiological symbols of the Moldovan society: ritual bread, wine and the tree of life. Thanks to the implementation of a pilot project was created the touristic route “HUNTING FOR SPIRITUAL TREASURES” which offers the possibility to know lively, through participation, the significances of these symbols that refer to the triumph of life and human creativity in an ecological natural environment. The project matches the European aims of asserting and promoting the cultural identities and of acknowledging the values of the tangible and intangible cultural heritage, as a guarantee of social cohesion. It views the development and diversification of the national and cross-border touristic product, the socio-economic development of communities, by means of the respect of the general human values. The paper is based on the results of theoretic and practical investigations of the common aspects in the development of culture and civilization for the durable touristic assessment of the anthropologic cultural heritage, of the tangible and intangible cultural goods, being the main identity basis for the socio-economic development and for the cohesion of the community.