Vol. IX, no. 1/2014

The main theme of this article is to present the capitalization in terms of lagoons in Europe. European countries have realized the importance of tourism to the economy, the advantages and the benefits that it brings. The lagoons, intermediates areas between sea and land with unique ecosystems and wonderful landscapes have a major potential. It has been made a desk research using existing resources like the Internet, books, articles in the press, statistical publications and analytical reports. It has been found that many countries in Europe have one or more lagoons on their territory and how those capitalized them. In this moment, there aren’t enough studies on the topic, but the competent authorities should take into account this major potential on tourism activity.

The purpose of this article is to give insight into gastronomic tourism in Europe. The second idea that we develop in this article refer to the values of the gastronomy, precisely: ethical and sustainable values, which are established on local products, culture, lifestyle and landscape. Gastronomy has appeared like an indispensable element in order to get to know the culture and lifestyle of a destination and so embodies all the traditional values associated with the new trends in tourism: respect for culture and tradition, a healthy lifestyle, authenticity, sustainability, experience… etc.. This leading role of gastronomy when choosing a travel destination has resulted in the growth of gastronomic offer based on high quality local products and the consolidation of a separate market for food tourism. Provided that everything mentioned above constitutes the main reason or motivation to travel for visitors to a particular destination or at least on significant motivation. Tourists are more experienced and informed, have more disposable revenue and more leisure time to travel, and thus tourism permit them to escape from the daily routine of their usual working and living environment. Tourists are looking after the origin of the gastronomic food, legends and stories about the food, history, making it an expression of cultural tourism.

Because the effects of economic cycles and, in particular, the crisis of recent years, are becoming stronger and more extensive , affecting whole sectors of the world economy and national tourism through important role to contribute to mitigating these negative consequences . To help increase however , support and economic recovery, it is necessary to identify factors that have a strong influence on indicators of tourist traffic. This will then allow the ranking factors exerted by link indicators hierarchy that can be a foundation for the design of strategies and policies to maximize the positive effects of tourism on the national economy. At the same time, it can contribute to a better understanding of how the determinants of tourism act at different stages of the economic cycle. This paper examines the links between a number of macroeconomic indicators ( GDP, employment, real wages ) and a number of indicators of tourist traffic (number of overnights , arrivals, departures). Analysis period includes the years of the economic cycle (2005-2012) and highlights the links between economic growth , economic recession , and the correlations for the entire period.

The primary theme of this research paper is to study the motivational factors that determine Romanians to choose certain travel packages. This research issue will be explained by applying a number of 100 questionnaires during the spring edition of Romania's Tourism Fair of 2014, as follows: 50 questionnaires were applied to the fair visitors and the rest were applied to the exhibitors. By analyzing the survey responses, we have come to the conclusion that Romanian people choose foreign destinations, to the detriment of Romania, due to the price/quality ratio. Also, promotion is a major problem of the Romanian tourism, as stated by both groups of respondents.