Abstract Tourism and services are important components of any developed European society. The Northern-Eastern Region of Romania (NER), which comprises six counties with various problems, is lacking of good promotion and there are major gaps between the component counties. The failures of the communication and promotion system are caused by an insufficient development of the domestic network of tourist information offices within the towns and villages. The limited financial resources of the l...
Autori: Florin Alexandru Luca, Igor Creţescu
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=25580

Abstract The paper tackles the issue of ecological tourism in Romania?s North-East Region. This region offers some opportunities such as low costs for tourist operators and highly qualified local hosting personnel that can make it attractive. The concept of sustainable development is presented and its features are discussed in the context of tourism. Ecological education is presented as a collateral effect that naturally derives from developing a sustainable tourism, especially in Romania?s N...
Autori: Brindusa Robu, Carmen Cătălina Ioan, Matei Macoveanu
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=25597

The environment is an intrinsic component of most tourism products, and in segments, such as rural and outdoor tourism, it is the reason for their existence. In recent years, tourists have been including respect for the environment as a factor in their purchasing decisions; and many businesses are using this factor as a differential component to increase their market competitiveness. However, few studies have examined the use of the environment by tourism firms as a competitive strategy and what...
Autori: Alejandro García-Pozo, José-Luis Sánchez-Ollero, Macarena Marchante-Lara
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=25820

Measuring progress of the tourism destinations in the area of sustainability has now become one of the major challenges facing policymakers action. Sustainability is a dynamic concept. In fact, in reality, it really can be measured is not �sustainability�, but �progress towards sustainability�, bearing in mind that this is not an ideal target linked to a fixed state of harmony, but a continuous process of adjustment and reorientation of tourism development to achieve the balance between ...
Autori: Juan-Ignacio Pulido-Fernández, Marcelino Sánchez-Rivero, Yaiza López-Sánchez
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=25821

Tourism is one of the essential components of population services and a major influence factor for economic and social development. The tourism industry is characterized by a great structural complexity, in multiple forms of this service.This industry can also have an impact on the natural resources and environment in the various tourist destinations, on everyday life of these locations and also on the individuals from those areas, whether rural or urban. Nowadays, tourism faces different challe...
Autori: , Elena Elisabeta Pomeanu
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=25903

AbstractThis paper focuses on the relationship between individual factors of environmental attitudes and behavior intentions of touristsvisiting a World Heritage City. We adopt a model based on the Theory of Planned Behavior with three environmental attitudinalfactors (Responsibility, Knowledge and Values) and research data was collected through tourist surveys in Cuenca (Spain).Estimation results show that there is a positive relationship between dimensions of environmental attitudes and behavi...
Autori: Ainhoa Rodríguez-Oromendía
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=26188

AbstractThis study estimates the number of visitors to State Protected Wilderness Areas (SPWAs) in Chile by origin (national andforeign), using annual data from 1986 to 2011. Two linear regression models were used: one to estimate the number of Chileanvisitors and the other for foreign visitors. The model to predict Chilean visitors in 2013-2014 incorporates the GDP per capita inChile, the annual trend in the conditions of international economic crises, while the model to predict the number of f...
Autori: Jaime Pérez-Kallens
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=26189

AbstractToday's society experiences a growing interest in social problems. This leads to the need for companies to assess their impact onthe environment, in its social, environmental and economic dimensions. As a result, organizations are incorporating socialpractices that are used as variables of marketing to attract and retain customers. In this context, the purpose of the present study is twofold; namely to analyze the organizational culture change of the hotels directors because of the requi...
Autori: Isabel María Rosa Díaz
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=26190

AbstractEven though natural spaces form authentic tourism resources, scientific literature has devoted little attention to study theauthenticity of the environmental heritage. Therefore the purpose of this work is to analyze the antecedents and behavioralconsequences of the perceived authenticity of high-quality environmental destinations. Destination image and quality areproposed as the main antecedents. Global satisfaction and loyalty are displayed towards the destination as the possibleconseq...
Autori: José-Manuel Hernández-Mogollón
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=26191

AbstractThe significant increase in air transportation expected over the coming decades, combined with the initiation of the emissions trading system (EU-ETS) within European aviation, is increasing the requirement for airlines to find new levels of efficiency in their operating practices leading to reduced emission levels. Technological developments are expected to lead to substantial reductions in fuel burn and emissions over the long term, including aircraft design optimization and the use of...
Autori: Athanasios J. Kolios, Stuart Howe
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=26282

AbstractThe protected natural areas are becoming increasingly popular vacation destinations with both international and domestictravellers. Protected area may be an area of land and/or sea dedicated to the protection and maintenance of biological diversity,and of natural and associated cultural resources, and managed through legal or other means. It might have many differentpurposes. This means that biodiversity protection, though a critically important function is far from being the only purpos...
Autori: Lidija Petrić
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=26413

Abstract Patzcuaro Lake, placed in the lacustrine zone of Michoacán (central México), has four municipalities around its shoreline, and is an important tourist attraction in the region. Because the area is predominantly rural it lacks many efficient public services, amount them adequate management of solid wastes that is reflected in the insufficient collection services and lack of landfills in the area. The object of this research was to determine the local environmental perce...
Autori: Otoniel Buenrostro
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=26604

Abstract Braila Small Island is situated on the Danube, in Braila County, Romania being considered a protected area, in the category V IUCN - Natural Parks. Because of aggressive tourism, inappropriate behaviour of the tourists as well as of the residents, as well as of the fact that the navigation channels are open and the transit is made by engine boats, the whole ecosystem is endangered by noise pollution. The purpose of this paper is to determine the level of the noise pollution emerging...
Autori: Mihaela Picu
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=26823

The aim of this study was to determine the impact of mercury pollution on soil, surface water, and sediment ecosystems in the area of old mercury mines. The study was performed in the touristic area of Sântimbru Băi and Sâncrăieni villages from the Harghita County, Romania. More than twenty years ago, a mine for the extraction of mercury operated in Sântimbru Băi. The area was decontaminated, but no monitoring studies have been made for over 15 years. During t...
Autori: Luisa Roxana Popescu
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27038

The main purpose of this research is to outline a profile of the environmentally friendly tourist in a Romanian mountain destination. Using quantitative research the paper investigates tourists’ environmental awareness, their eco-friendly intentions and their demographic and travel characteristics. The analysis is based on 331 observations collected in the most important Romanian mountain resort, namely Poiana Brasov. The research findings have allowed us to create a profile of the env...
Autori: Adina Nicoleta Candrea
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27042

There is a great deal of research focusing primarily on the analysis of cities’ sustainable development, in which the role of culture plays an important role. Accordingly, a range of research disciplines consider the influence of culture on sustainable development. The relationship between culture and sustainable development is analysed from two perspectives: the development of the cultural sector and the presence of cultural dimension in different public policies. One of the elements t...
Autori: Juan Antonio Mondéjar-Jiménez
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27069

Since the link between tourism and economic growth is not automatic, a country must meet certain characteristics in order for this link to occur and make it sustainable through time. Among these characteristics, environmental and sustainable policies, the existence of hard and soft infrastructure, a regulated labour market and economic and financial indicators play a key role. Therefore, Country Risk Score (CRS) can represent a good indicator of the sustainability of countries. Using Country ...
Autori: Roberto Cervelló-Royo
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27074

This article addresses a cross-destination research to study a key issue for the growth and competitiveness of the tourism sector, which is the perceived environmental sustainability of a destination. Particularly, a segmentation analysis is developed to examine potential unobserved heterogeneity across tourists regarding their perception of environmental sustainability of the destination. 918 tourists of five Mediterranean Sea Basin cities are studied using a latent class segmentation techni...
Autori: Raquel Sánchez-Fernández
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27075

Any modern enterprise, with focus on marketing and management success have to be based on market principles, pursuing the main objectives, of increasing production and services in terms of sustainable development. In this context, rural tourism and agritourism, with a high rate in rural areas, is a major factor, with direct consequences on local development and meeting the consumption needs of tourists. There are several advantages of the agritourism which had been described previously such as: ...
Autori: Elena Leonte
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27206

Based on more than 25 years of research in the field of agritourism, the current work represents a pertinent, realistic and critical analysis of the main factors favourable to the implementation and development of agritourism and rural tourism in Romania. Firstly, we examined the main natural and anthropic tourist resources which constitute the country’s tourist treasures, and we concluded that Romania has rich, varied and attractive tourist resources that have not been fully exploited and...
Autori: Aurel Călina
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27237

Current research details methodological framework for the land planning of the recreational activities based on ecologic approach. Human impacts on landscapes caused by touristic activities should be in accordance with sustainability level, i.e. without changing natural landscape elements, their function and processes, as well as environmental quality. Region of Štiavnické Bane in Slovakia represents a case study area that is completely under nature and landscape conservation. The ...
Autori: Michal Klaučo
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27264

The paper evaluates the effect of selected socio-economic parameters on the generation of municipal waste in Podlasie Province of north-eastern Poland. The study was made over the eight year period (2001-2008) and seventeen separate counties were analyzed. Principal component analysis (PCA) as a multivariate statistical method was used for filtering the data so that only the significant independent variables could be determined. The first component explained over the 54% of waste production v...
Autori: Izabela Anna Talalaj
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27431

This paper presents the trampling effects on vegetation composition in three Long Term Socio-Ecological Research sites (LTSER), respectively Neajlov Catchment, Bucegi-Piatra Craiului and Braila Islands (distributed within different biogeographical regions: continental, alpine and steppic), over a period of 3 years (2007-2009). The degree of damage is related to trampling intensity. In forest ecosystems significant declines in species richness was observed two weeks after trampling, from 75 passe...
Autori: Mioara Dumitraşcu
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27474

Increase in tourism demand in the coastal areas of Mazandaran Province, Iran, as one of the major tourist attractions near Tehran, has led to tourism development and consequently adverse environmental impacts. However, given the tourism potential within the region, tourism managers and planners seek to follow sustainable development principles. In this regard, determining sites capable of tourism development and finding an optimal site among the alternatives are two main challenges that they ...
Autori: Jafar Nouri
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27503

Köyceğiz-Dalyan Lagoon is situated in the southwestern region of Turkey. The area between the Köyceğiz Lake and the sea is covered with four small lakes and numerous canals. The Dalyan Channel network connects lake to the Mediterranean Sea is one of the most important reproduction areas for Mediterranean Sea turtles. The objectives of the present study are to evaluate the influence of channel traffic and Köyceğiz Lake on the water quality of Dalyan Channel by evalua...
Autori: Başak Kılıç Taşeli
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27507

The impacts of anthropogenic activities on the water and sediment fluxes in coastal areas have caused significant economic and environmental damages over the last century. The development of large-scale water abstraction and sediment retention infrastructures has facilitated phenomena such as coastal erosion, frequent eutrophication events and sea water anoxia. The present work investigates the alterations that have been observed over the last 50 years in the area of Thermaikos Gulf, Northern Gr...
Autori: Elias Dimitriou
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27582

The construction of rural tourism actor-network is an innovative transformation process, which integrates natural, economic, social and cultural focal actors of multi-functional agriculture in a rural area. The transformation process is a translation of these actors incorporated into a spatial distribution of landscape, which accelerates rural tourism through innovative integration. This study provides a method to measure and analyze the characteristics of focal actors in the translation process...
Autori: Liaoji Zheng
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27761

Many ecotourism destinations unfortunately tend to become unsustainable and even self-destructive due to inappropriate environmental assessments. On the other hand, because of the increasing people’s willingness to tourism and relaxation, it is necessary to select and introduce new regions for tourism. To do this, the application of relevant criteria can be a profitable method. The purpose of this study is to identify nature-based tourism activities and also site selection for them in Sisa...
Autori: Sedigheh Babazadeh Khameneh
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27755

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) for waste disposal options to examine their impacts is of great importance. Rapid impact assessment matrix (RIAM) was used in this research to evaluate impacts of the four different MSW disposal scenarios in Abyaneh village which is one of the oldest villages in Iran, attracting numerous domestic and international tourists year-round. These scenarios, respectively, were open dumping (S1), sanitary landfilling (S2), composting, followed by sanitary landfil...
Autori: Ali Daryabeigi Zand
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=28057

Challenges that characterize the relations between humans and environment can be addressed using the concepts and methods of ecosystem services assessment to provide a proper basis for environmental accountability and policy development. While the provisioning ecosystem services received a lot of focus in the science, and based on different cultural values that may be associated to different regions, there are still gaps in understanding how local communities use the ecosystems’ cultural s...
Autori: Danny Daniel Castillo Vizuete
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=28126

The research focuses on the assessment of the main agro-productive properties and the evolution of the mollic reddish (red-brown) preluvisol between the Jiu and Olt rivers, under the new conditions of soil formation and exploitation, created after radical transformations in Romanian agriculture, when most of the lands were passed from state to private ownership. The first comparative analysis of the properties of the soil that evolved on the terrains utilized for crop culture on farms and agrito...
Autori: Jenica Călina
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=28128

Tourist cities are facing an ecological crisis due to population boom, pollution and environmental damage. To solve the crisis, this paper attempts to make an accurate evaluation of ecological carrying capacity of tourist cities, identify the factors affecting the ecosustainability of such cities, and prepare a feasible solution to these factors. Specifically, the tourism ecological footprint theory was introduced into the evaluation of sustainable tourism development in tourist areas based on S...
Autori: Bowen Wang
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=28269

The steady increase in separate waste collection has highlighted the urgent need to adequately deal not only with urban waste (differentiated and undifferentiated) but also with special waste produced by separate waste collection and recycling processes. Source collected municipal solid waste produces different waste streams. One of this is the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW). This fraction is central for circular economy, since it can be further transformed in order to recove...
Autori: Ivana Moscato
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=28302