The Impact Of Rural Tourism On The Socio-Economic Development Of Local Communities

At present, the development of rural tourism has the role of creating a balance between the traditions specific to the local community and the tourism industry, the socio-economic benefits on the community being influenced by the way of organization, arrangement of tourist villages, as well as by the variety and quality of tourist services. Romania has a valuable rural tourism potential, which properly capitalized can positively influence the development of local communities, ensuring the creation of new jobs, additional income for the population, while stimulating external investments in rural areas. In this context, sustainable rural development as a factor of active economic growth becomes necessary, in order to gradually move to an acceptable economic and social standard in rural areas. Because the Romanian tourist village does not present itself as a standard tourist product and carries the imprint of the original, the unpublished and the surprise, it is attracting an increasing number of tourists, both Romanian and foreign. In this sense, the scientific research methods used include bibliographic synthesis for the theoretical basis of the paper, data processing, comparative analysis and description of data from the studies identified and collected from specialized institutions, from official reports and statistics. The preliminary results include analytical investigation of the impact of rural tourism on the socio-economic development of local communities, analysis of the evolution of the accommodation base in rural areas, as well as the evolution of the tourist circulation.