Critical Issues in Sustainable Tourism Development in Romania: Challenges and Lessons For Kenya

Abstract

Sustainability as a concept involves a number of different strands. Environmental, ecological and economic factors assume that it is applicable in the technical sciences, whereas social and political factors relate to power
and values. Within these strands, questions of scale, family, community, region, timescale, project life, indefinite and so on are critical elements. Without any notable exceptions the Romanian specialists and the foreign ones agree upon the fact that the Romanian tourism potential could compete with the touristic supply of any other country in the world thus significantly contributing to the income growth. Today, the Romanian hospitality industry confronts itself with problems such as: the decline of the internal and external touristic demand, an old touristic product, the low standard in the services which do not satisfy the tourists` expectations, the payment and too high prices compared to the quality of the services, an insufficient promotion. Kenya on the other hand is also faced with challenges in the promotion of other aspects of tourism products other than wildlife and the Maasai. This paper hence seeks to redress the critical issues in sustainable tourism development in the two countries and in so doing, hopes to outline the way forward in the 21st century.

Key words: sustainable development, Romania, Kenya, tourism, regional development