Capitalisation Of Natural Resources For Tourism Purposes In The Danube Delta

The Danube Delta outstands by a number of characteristics that outline its uniquiness at national, regional and world level, pattern that is recognized by its multiple natural reserve status (biosphere reserve, Ramsar site, UNESCO natural heritage site, Natura 2000 site). Despite major technical works that were prior performed for the development of transportation, agriculture, and mining in the Danube Delta, the territory still preserves untamed ecosystems that create breath-taking landscapes and allow a powerful transformative experience of wilderness with major sustainability education potential for its visitors. Meanwhile, traditional economic activities are declining and local communities are experiencing mainly the drawbacks of remoteness instead of harnessing the valuable opportunities born within the current economic trends that emphasize the need to capture the positive externalities of well-preserved natural ecosystems. The Danube Delta is already a well-known tourism destination, but this status still fails to improve local wellbeing. Thus the richness of natural resources is conflicting with the wellbeing of communities with most of the people living at the edge of poverty. This “resource curse” like situation is the main reason that motivates our study that envisages outlining how tourism development and management could create the economic capacity that delivers prosperity for local communities without jeopardising the conservation goals of the natural reserve. In this respect we revisited a number of characteristics of tourism potential, tourism indicators, patterns of tourism products, and the current tourism management. This analysis revealed that there are a number of positive trends, but also the need to strengthen the measures that support high value added tourism products that allow avoiding the threat of numerous visitors and the development of mass tourism infrastructure. The relevance of these conclusions is limited by the lack of more precise assessment of tourism preferences, value added of current tourism products, and social and environmental impact of the novel tourism facilities.