Cristi FRENȚ, Senior Researcher, PhD (email: cristi.frent@incdt.ro)
National Institute of Research and Development in Tourism, Bucharest, Romania
ABSTRACT
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to present some estimates regarding the size of rural tourism in Romania based on the existing data from official tourism statistics provided by the National Institute of Statistics (INS).
Design/Methodology/approach
A bottom-up approach was used by aggregating INS data from more than 1,000 – 1,200 rural localities (ro. comune) in Romania that have tourism statistics in the period 2019-2023. Based on the assumption that rural tourism occurs in these rural localities, some statistical indicators were calculated for the rural area of Romania: accommodation capacities (existing capacity and functioning capacity), arrivals, overnight stays, length of stay and bed-places occupancy. However, as a limitation, due to the fact that in Romania some urban localities comprise also villages where rural tourism might occur, some adjustments are possible to be made in the estimates to include agro-tourism boarding houses (ro. pensiuni agroturistice) of the urban localities.
Main findings
The results show that even rural area concentrates half of the accommodation establishments and over 30% of the accommodation capacity in Romania it attracts only 21-22% of total tourists registered in accommodation establishments. This illustrates a lower capacity of the rural area to constitute a real driver to boost Romanian tourism.
Originality/value
This paper proposed a new method to unveil statistics on rural tourism in Romania based on data aggregation from Local Administrative Units (LAUs) in a pragmatic approach to define rural space based on the classification of localities (ro. UAT-uri – comune, orașe, municipii) as used in the official statistics in Romania.
Conclusions/Recommendation
Within accommodation statistics, National Institute of Statistics might start publish data with the breakdown Rural vs. Urban localities (out of which, agritourist boarding houses from urban localities).
Keywords: rural tourism, tourism statistics, rural area, Romania
JEL Classification: Z30, C81
