Vol. XV, no. 1 /2017

Promoting Tourism Destinations by Awarding with a Golden Apple

By Ţigu Gabriela

Traveling for Medical Tourism - The Diaspora' s Motivation

By Florența Larisa Vasile (Ile)

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.

Trends of Tourist Demand in Romania. Positioning of Rural Tourists Among the Tourist Preferences

By Daniel Avram

Rural tourism in Romania has significant potential, acknowledged both internally and internationally. Keeping up old customs in villages, including in regard to the daily life, existence of remarkably beautiful landscapes, as well as the promoting in the foreign press, create the premises required for the take-off of the activities specific to the rural area among the domestic tourists.Considering the resources at the disposal of the Romanian villages and assuming that modern people are more and more interested in returning to nature, for disconnecting from the job-related stress, the author wanted to find out what is the position of this type of tourism among the tourist demand. After carrying out an administered questionnaire-based quantitative survey, the results showed that the preferences concerning the place of spending the holiday are the seaside and the mountains, while the rural areas are considered as the main option in 2% of the cases. However, the tourist profile that arises from the research shows that there is a base from which the rural tourism can progress in the medium and short-term preferences, as the respondents reveal a significant preference over the elements of the rural tourist offer.

The Corelation Between Team Cohesion and Team Performance in Tourism-Based Organisations

By Irina Misoc

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.

The Impact of the Tourist Behaivor on the Offer of Tourism Agencies in Romania

By Mihaela-Alina Bălan

In spite of the existing natural and anthropic riches, the Romanians have lately preferred to spend their holidays in foreign countries, despite the rather timid efforts of the state to promote domestic tourism. The foreign holiday destinations are among the top of the Romanians’ preferences, especially due to the quality / price ratio, but also to the quality offered by hoteliers as well as to the numerous tourist attractions. We can also say that Romanians have become more demanding in choosing tourist packages and that they prefer to invest in their comfort by allocating more and more money for holidays, especially for those abroad. Below, shall be presented the results of a research carried out on the occasion of the Tourism Fair in Romania, November 2015, February and November 2016 editions, whose main purpose was to study the trends in Romania's tourism offer.

New Challenges in Recruitment and Selection - Attraction of the Y Generation

By Emma - Denisa Andrei

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.

Manipulations of Users's Behavior Under "Social Monitoring" in Tourist Services

By Liviu Dediu

The influence of many factors determines, along with technological and communications developments, an increase in the speed that is required to solve any task in the time unit. Not in vain, this sense of shortening time was perceived as “Time has no patience with us.” Control can give rise to positive or negative effects. When the balance generated by the law that coordinates the processes is influenced by factors that apply control procedures, we can talk about the likelihood of manipulation actions. Can the users of tourist services be manipulated by “social monitoring”? To find the answer to this question we need to find out if we have people who imagine at the theoretical and practical level the study and the application of manipulation theories, legal entities that undertake to provide specific services based on the manipulative control of some target subjects, customers requesting such services and, last but not least, a market to be presented with a portfolio of services verified in practice.

Sustainable Strategy of Implementing IPR Management in Mergers & Acquisitions

By Adrian Bercovici, Gabriela Stănciulescu

The objective of this paper is to identify the right key questions, the right time stages and the right M&A phases for the implementing of the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) management and more exactly the IPR expert in the M&A DD process. With the help of these, the IPR expert can decide on an economically and time sustainable IPR DD process for the discussed investment types. The methodology used involves 6 different DD processes which were implemented in the course of 7 years in 2 different global corporations by the writers as well as a literature research of the best practices on the field. It is proposed to create a framework which guides and supports the path to a resource sustainable strategy of implementing the IPR DD.

Structure, Conduct and Performance Paradigm in Assessing Travel Agency Performances

By Gabriela Stănciulescu, Elisabeta Ilona Molnar

The purpose of this paper is to present and exemplify traditional and neoclassical approaches to market structure and tourism firm performance analysis. The paper tackles some of the industrial economic thinking trends which were meant to fill the gaps left by the traditional approaches. Two approaches stand out from among the industrial economic trends: SCP paradigm and game theory. The results show that the strategy tourism operators prefer is to practice high prices; however there is no certainty that the competitors would adhere to such an idea at the beginning or during the season.

Introducing Theories and Practices Concerning ERP.The Case of the Pharmaceutical Industry

By Kabalan Habib, Gabriela Stănciulescu

The Pharmaceutical field is a rapidly growing and highly variable market due to constant advancements in medical research. This industry is also considered one of the biggest markets currently in place. The competition in the pharmaceutical field requires companies to operate in a very efficient and effective way to ensure a competitive edge that allows them to keep moving forward. Furthermore, innovations in the IT industry have become a major part of businesses worldwide. One of the most advanced tools that companies are implementing nowadays is Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERP) that runs the entire operational infrastructure in an automated way. This article aims to provide a qualitative approach to the integration of ERP in the pharmaceutical industry and the depth and spread of the available applications through testimonies from various head of departments within a pharmaceutical company that underwent a migration from a manual to an automated system.

Sport Events Worth Travelling All around the Year

By Tünde Gál, Gabriela Stănciulescu