Rural Tourism—Viable Alternatives for Preserving Local Specificity and Sustainable Socio-Economic Development: Case Study—“Valley of the Kings” (Gurghiului Valley, Mureș County, Romania)

Rural tourism, defined as a form of local initiative tourism, has at its forefront the involvement of the local community, who contribute significantly to the affirmation and promotion of this type of tourism. In order to be able to speak of the practice of this type of tourism in a given geographical area, it is first necessary to highlight the existence of a tourist heritage, both natural and anthropic, which identifies itself with the authentic character of the area, satisfying the need of the tourist to discover activities and tourist attractions with local specificity. The purpose of this research is to investigate the role of socio-economic and cultural aspects in the sustainable development of tourism in the Gurghiului Valley. The present study also aims to highlight the role of local entrepreneurs in the process of economic development in the area by means of new practices and sustainable approaches; this is based on efficient capitalization of the natural and anthropic tourism heritage of the area, defined by elements of authenticity. The methodology applied in this work is based on the study of specialized literature, along with case study on tourist activity in rural tourism. The research carried out is based on analysis of data from official sources of tourist data (the National Tourism Agency (hereafter NTA) and the National Institute of Statistics (hereafter NIS)), as well as research carried out in the field to see if there are discrepancies between what these two aforementioned official sources provide and the reality on the ground. Our research finally revealed the fact that Gurghiului Valley officially entered into the tourist landscape in 1990 through the lens of the Lăpușna student and preschool camp, and rural tourism has been organized in the study area since 2005. At the same time, research has shown that there is currently a need for much greater involvement and awareness both from local authorities and the resident population regarding the importance of rural tourism in the social and economic evolution of the local community.