Transport Accessibility as a Factor for Tourism Flow Augmentation. Case Study: The Romanian Health Resorts

George GAMAN1, Bianca RĂCĂȘAN1
1 Babeș-Bolyai University, Faculty of Geography, Centre for Research on Settlements and Urbanism, Cluj-Napoca, ROMANIA
E-mail: gaman.george07@yahoo.com, bianca_racasan@yahoo.com
Pages: 65-77

Abstract. Romanian health tourism represents a major chance of economic increase because it has all the necessary premises for development and for registering some of the most efficient revenues. Therefore, by using a complex methodology, we first aimed to reveal the current situation of each of the Romanian health resorts in terms of transport accessibility. Each type of transport communication system (road, railway and aerial) was analyzed by taking into account the connections to the European and national roads, primary and secondary railways, airports, aiming to pinpoint to what extent the level of accessibility of a resort influences the tourist flow. The second goal was to reveal if transport accessibility could condition the tourist flow towards the Romanian health resorts, by operating several correlations between accessibility situation and tourist arrivals, overnights, tourist traffic density, and the net use index of accommodation capacity of each Romanian health resort. The results highlighted that health resorts situated in the Carpathian area presented the lowest level of transport accessibility. However, the influence on the tourist flow of Romanian health resorts proved very low, since the development of these resorts depended entirely on the health factors provided by the area and the historical circumstances, all based on the fact that the specific nature of health tourism requires a more secluded placement. The exceptions enumerate the resorts situated on the seaside of the Black Sea, Prahova Valley, Transylvania and Crișana areas.

K e y w o r d s: mineral water springs, therapeutic values, local bioclimate, Slănic Moldova, Băișorii Mountain