Thematic Routes - Tourist Destinations in Romania

Thematic routes have become greatly demanded ”fashionable” tourist destinations, in recent years. In many countries they gained popularity not only through their value as individual objectives, but also through their attraction, generated by the association of tourist objectives, in a larger region. The main purpose of this article is to analyze the main Romanian thematic routes, as part of the European routes, or as regional/local routes, specific on a national level, their actual condition and knowledge about them, compared to other European regions. As research method we used the qualitative analysis, due to the lack of registered statistical data, based on series of observations from a longer period of time. The research reveals the fact that although we can talk about Romanian thematic routes, advertised on European sites, they are less known by local organizations and specialized institutions. They do not advertise for them on a national level and that is why they are little known and practiced by tourists. Certain non-governmental institutions specialized in the field keep track of sites and advertise for regional/local thematic routes. As a result, foreign tourists are more interested in thematic routes, which they know from ”home”, among which we can mention the Wine way, Dacian fortresses and the narrow gauge steam railway in Maramureş.