Spatial Distribution of Relationship between Historical Monuments and Tourism: The Case Study of Bihor County in Romania

Tourism is one of the emerging branches of the economy, playing an important role in the development of specific economies within local communities. In this context, the perspectives of exploiting historical monuments, seen as raw material in the tourism industry, represent a desirable goal worth considering at the locality and territorial administrative unit level. The purpose of this study is to highlight the relationship between historical monuments, viewed as factors generating tourist motivation and tourism. This was made possible by conducting a spatial analysis (at the level of territorial administrative units and localities) of the defining criteria for historical monuments and tourism in Bihor County, Romania. The research methodology involved the use of multicriteria analysis to identify and establish the types of relationships between historical monuments and tourism, at a spatial level. The results of the study aimed to present an image of the spatial distribution of the characteristics of historical monuments and tourism, as well as to establish and depict spatial relationships between them, thus partially confirming the working hypothesis that the number and importance of historical monuments influence and determine tourist activity within a given area. Thus, although the studied area has 455 historical monuments, they are not exploited from a tourist point of view, with there being no strong relationships, except at the level of 19 territorial administrative units (18.8%), respectively, in 15 localities (3.3%). Among them, the obtained values stand out for the territorial administrative units of Oradea and Biharia, respectively, in the localities of Oradea and Beiuș.