Comparative Study Regarding Overnights Registered In The Member States Of The European Union And Romania, During June-September 2009/2010

Second year PhD student at the University of Oradea, under the guidance of Prof. Alina Bãdulescu, within the Doctoral Research Project entitled "Doctoral studies and phd candidates for a competitive research in a knowledge-based society," (01.10.2009-01.10.2012), I chose the presentation of this theme because after studying a number of statistics presented by Eurostat (Statistics in Focus 53/2010, 6/2011, 19/2011 etc.) we could not ignore the alarming situation regarding the number of overnights registered throughout Romania, in comparison with the other Member States of the European Union. By chosing the following research theme: "Tourism and development in the euroregional context" I felt the need to find out more answers regarding the afore mentioned problem. In consequence I started to consult the statistics recorded in our country concerning the number of overnight stays registered in Romania during the period June-August 2009/2010, in order to check whether an error has sneaked in. The research methodology employed consisted in the use of the insse.ro site, in order to gather representative data for the period June-September 2009/2010, regarding the number of nights spent by foreign and Romanian tourists in Romania. For this study to be even more representative I have established Romania's main touristic areas preferred by Romanian and foreign tourists. Following the data collected, unfortunately, it has been confirmed the situation presented by Eurostat in the table at the beginning of paper on the number of overnight stays registered in Romania. According to the data presented in this table, Romania ranks last in the EU, registering in 2010 a rate of only 15% of total nights spent by non-residents in our country. I also tried to find answer to the following questions: Which are Romanians' favorite touristic areas? In which tourist area of Romania has been recorded the highest number of overnight stays of foreign tourists? Why the number of nights spent by foreigners in Romania is so small? Which are the main shortcomings of Romanian tourism? For the last two questions I tried to answer with the help of some experts in tourism, who consider that although there presented inadequacies exist for more than 10 to 15 years, the steps taken for their improvement are achieved with the slowness.