Social Tourism – an Alternative Form of Tourism in Romania

Social tourism is a particular form of tourism practiced by social groups with limited income and oriented to their cognitive, cultural and recreational needs. Concretely, the term "Social tourism" is based on tourism services offer a low price. These holidays may be accompanied or educational services and/or therapeutic benefit services. They may also be specially built camps for use by persons with disabilities. On the other hand, social tourism can refer to highlighting of tourist sites and natural heritage, cultural, artistic, historical or geographically isolated areas less known, thus pursuing economic boost through the development of poor areas tourism impact on local communities. This paper proposes to identify which are and on what does social tourism programs in Romania. The paper is structured as follows: introduction to the social tourism in Romania, social tourism programs, tourism indicators and conclusions.

Keywords

Social tourism, Calypso, ANAT (The National Association of Travel Agencies from Romania), ANTREC (National Association of Rural, Ecological and Cultural Tourism), OPTBR (Organization of Spa Tourism in Romania)

JEL Classification

L83, O19

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