Constantin Mitrut

Tourism, cultural resources and regional competitiveness: a case study in Romania

For many regional economies tourism can offer effective solutions to the question of regional competitiveness. As a niche market, cultural tourism responds at present to a growing demand, more and more travellers ranking arts, heritage and other cultural activities as one of the main reasons of travelling. This paper proposes a case study in Romania, which discusses the current state and the perspectives of cultural tourism development at national and regional level. A special emphasis will be put on the possibility to correlate the policy measures supporting tourism development with those addressing the creation of a competitive specialisation profile, infrastructure improvement, sustainability, institutional capacity building, financial management and control so as to contribute to economic recovery and reducing intra and interregional disparities.

Regional specialisation and industrial concentration in Romania’s transition period from an election cycle perspective

In this paper we propose an inquiry into the patterns of regional specialisation and industrial concentration in Romania during its transition to a market economy (1990–2004). Following an econometric modelling-based approach we demonstrate that the changes in these patterns have been influenced to a large extent by election cycles, and more precisely by changes in the economic policy options determined by the ‘colour’ of each corresponding government. These findings have an important significance for the postaccession period, suggesting the need for decisions on economic structures to be carefully monitored when a new election cycle is approaching, in order to avoid possible negative consequences for efficiency and integration in EU structures.

Issues regarding the effective municipal real property management: the question of classification criteria with a case study in Romania

The effective municipal real estate management has a special significance to the East European countries, considering their major inheritance of municipal real estates from the former communist regime, which could represent an important generator of local revenues. This paper proposes a discussion on the classification criteria of municipal properties, as a preliminary step for designing a long-term strategy for each class of properties. It is followed by the identification of the assessment methods that can be used in this field. The paper aims to demonstrate that classification and assessment represent - in this order - two distinct phases, explaining how they can be linked so as to serve as a solid methodological basis for the effective management of the municipal real estates. A case study in Romania is also included, aiming to explore the possibilities to adapt and apply various classification criteria developed in the international arena. In addition, the methods for the real estate property assessment used in the Romanian practice have been adapted in order to be employed for the assessment of the municipal real estates.