Agritourism - A Potential Linkage Between Local Communities And Parks To Maintain Sustainability

This article focuses on agritourism as potential linkage between the national park administrations and the tourism industry that acts in the rural communities situated near the national parks, by investigating the level of development of the agritourism industry and by revealing tourists benefits after visiting the areas. The study was conducted in two national parks from Romania and the surrounding areas. Agritourism plays an important role for the rural communities located around the national parks since it is one of the main sources of revenues not only for guesthouse owners, but also for the whole community. Tourism indicators are determined to emphasize the evolution of the agritourism industry in both regions, while the contingent valuation technique was used to elicit information on tourists’ hypothetical behaviour as regard to their visit to the national park and surrounding areas. The questionnaire was implemented during the summer of 2011 in Calimani National Park and Ceahlau National Park. The results indicate that agritourism can be considered as a potential linkage to maintain sustainability goals through a partnership between park managers and the tourism industry, in the case of the two analyzed national parks.