THE PERFORMANCE OF TOURISM AS A TOOL OF DEVELOPMENT FOR BRASOV REGION

Tourism is a strategic economic activity in Brasov, its importance in the local and national economy being likely to grow in the next few years. Tourism is now one of the world's largest industries and one of its fastest growing economic sectors. This paper is aimed at analysing the tendencies in tourism over the past five years in Brasov, observing the evolutions and suggesting some viable solutions for this region to become and remain a successful tourism destination in the future. The measurement of tourism activity from the perspective of the consumption of visitors entails the estimation of the observation units - trip, visitor and travel party - and their corresponding characteristics. Tourism is a consumer of cultural and natural resources, direct and indirect services, being a source of services in turn. A significant part of the Brasov region abounds in natural and antrophic tourism resources, which makes it possible that an increasing flow of both national and international travellers should be drawn by tourism development, while new towns may appear and flourish as tourism resort. In the case of Brasov region, the main reflection topic should be focused on the difference between the expected performance - the regional resources and the geographic position. As an absolute and also relative value in GDP, in the last few years, the Romanian tourism achieved performances which place it in the second half of the classifications related to Europe. The contribution of tourism activity to the general economic development in Romania shows that tourism may act as in impetus for the global economic system. This implies the specific demand of technologies, goods, and services produced by various economic branches should be met. Brasov area has a diversity of natural tourist resources and cultural assets of a great historical, architectural, and artistic value, those distinguish it from other areas. An accurate estimation of tourist potential elements requires a qualitative and quantitative system of criteria. Tourism favours the local utilization of several resources, of the labour market, for instance, contributing to its stabilization by diminishing the migration process towards the urban areas.