CRUISE SHIP TOURISM ON THE DANUBE RIVER. CASE STUDY: CAPITALIZATION OF DELTAIC TOURISM POTENTIAL

Abstract

Over the past two decades, river cruise tourism has witnessed a strong development, being preferred by more tourists each year, to the detriment of other forms of tourism. The presence of a plethora of attractive resources, concentrated along the inland waterways represents a particular offer for tourism development, through proper planning. However, in Romania, river cruise tourism is still incipient, even though cruises on the Danube are available, on a regular basis, since the 1970s. This research focuses on cruise ship tourism on the Danube, in particularly on the deltaic sector; with the Romanian ship MS Delta Star as a case study. Following, a brief presentation of the evolution of this type of tourism on the Danube River and its peculiarities on the Romanian sector, especially in the Danube Delta, was made. The assessment framework of the tourism potential of the Danube Delta at the level of administrative-territorial units was developed by applying the methodology from the National Spatial Plan. After correlating the results of the assessment with the current capitalization of tourism potential of the delta by the cruise ship included in the study, it is highlighted the need for optimizing the structure of the offer for this tourism sector. Identifying the most valuable elements of the Danube Delta, in terms of touristical attractions and including them to future itineraries for tourists on cruise ships guarantees a better capitalization of the tourism potential attracting therefore, a greater number of tourists.

Keywords

• MS Delta Star
• Danube Delta
• assessment of touristic potential