Ovidius University Annals: Economic Sciences Series (Sep 2022)
Destination Management Organizations in Romania: Important Steps Taken Recently for Their Operationalization
Abstract
Although it has a special tourism potential, whether natural or anthropogenic, Romania has not made enough progress in terms of increasing tourist traffic, compared to other neighboring countries. After the regime change in 1989 and the privatization of tourism units, the state-owned hotel and restaurant enterprises in the tourist resorts were abolished, but private tourism operators did not have the necessary legal framework for their involvement in the decision-making process concerning destinations. The Romanian legislation on Destination Management Organizations (DMOs), adopted in 2017, was not favorable to the creation of such organizations on the model of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP). As a result of the recommendations in the report prepared by the OECD on the operationalization of these organizations in Romania, the legislation on tourism has been amended, although the current form of the regulation is also not the one expected by most tourism operators.
