Nowadays tourism has undoubtedly become essential to both national and international economies and each country is currently trying to face the challenges imposed by this industry. In this respect, Romania has introduced a new range of treatments in the spa tourism eld which proved to be therapeutic for a signicant number of patients. The article aims to assess the feasibility of spa tourism in Vâlcii Subcarpathians offering a clear analysis of the evolution of the material and technical base of the resort. Therefore, the study focused on the evaluation of both natural and man-made resources favourable to the emergence and development of the spa resorts from Vâlcea County, Romania. At the same time, the authors gave it a touch of originality by shaping the development perspectives of Vâlcea Subcarpathian region. The research has a solid theoretical background based on relevant papers and fundamental studies in spa tourism meant to offer a signicant overview of the subject. The main results are based on a survey which was conducted in order to determine the quality degree of the accommodation and treatment in the region under study as well as the accessibility of the population to such services. At the same time, the paper outlines the main weaknesses and opportunities regarding the activities of spa tourism in Vâlcea Subcarpathians as a starting point for a further development strategy.

Traditionally a country of emigration, Romania recently experienced an increased migration influx, although it is more a country of transit than a destination for refugees and irregular migrants. Refugees often face difficulties when trying to meet their needs and access essential services. This study aims to explore the experiences and barriers of asylum seekers and people with refugee backgrounds in accessing healthcare services in Romania. It is an exploratory study with a qualitative research design, which uses an inductive and deductive approach, with thematic analysis being applied in order to grasp the difficulties and barriers that asylum seekers and people with refugee backgrounds experience in accessing essential social services. The research was based on seven in-depth interviews with representatives of significant national or international non-governmental organisations assisting refugees and asylum seekers in Romania and 129 semi-structured interviews with different categories of people with refugee backgrounds from Southwest Asia, Eastern Africa and Ukraine. One of the most salient themes we identified relates to accessing the healthcare system. Participants talked about what information they needed to access medical services, where they looked for this information, and what barriers they faced in the process. Cultural, linguistic, structural, and financial barriers were perceived as the most significant. Improved public awareness, a better understanding of asylum issues, and stronger community support are essential to addressing inequalities experienced by this vulnerable population.

Several media and research sources have recently flagged out and insisted significantly on a new process of concern to tourism planners in Bucharest. The Night of Bucharest Museums has initially been a quite isolated, museum focussed and rather individualistic event which has progressively developed over the past ten years into a cultural process involving several cultural institutions. Among the institutions involved in this growing event museums are still predominant but not sole. Most of the participant members into the event have developed complex and dynamic programmes comprising sections of joint institutional events mostly having to do with exposing the public to local culture. This brief comparative analysis of this progressive event development identifies changes to the extent and with particular regard to the cultural dimension of it in close connection to the potential of local tourism development. This paper is mainly attempting to answer the question regarding to what extent the public of such event has become tourist. The paper also aims to focus on more specific aspects and issues concerning the main aim by sketching a brief overview regarding the attitudes and perceptions of people regularly attending an event such the European Night of Museums in Bucharest. The paper attempts to determine the profile of participant to such event trying to identify the trends of this event on the Romanian wider market but particularly on the tourism market given the fact that museum visitor are mostly tourists. The study is making use of data collected during 2013 and 2014 editions of the event. The final aim of the paper is to emphasise issues regarding the wider concept of motivation in visiting museums and how they are linked with the cultural dimension of tourism, highlighting several difficulties faced by a multitude of institutions and how these are attempting to use tourism to overcome problematic situations.

Family is a notion that societies are consistently trying to define and redefine nowadays, according to various interest groups. It also represents a variable functioning within conditions of population aging, especially in developing countries. An analysis of what family means must consider all the factors that influence it both structurally and in terms of size. The main objectives were to identify the perception of fertile-aged women about the notion of family and to measure its possible influence on the target group’s demographic behavior. The inquiry method was part of the research methodology with 499 face-to-face, semi-structured interviews done of a sample size population (women aged 15 to 49) living in Bucharest, Romania and supplemented by an SPSS analysis of the data gathered. The main results show that regardless of their education or income level, the interviewed target group declared that starting a new family or enlarging the current one is mostly correlated with financial aspects, and also that a pregnancy early in a woman’s career is viewed as an obstacle to her future development, even though when asked about the ideal family the financial aspect was rarely mentioned. The authors concluded that respondents’ mental attitude and reproductive behavior are undergoing a transitory phase. As such in Romania there is a need for sustainable demographic measures to tackle fertility issues. Several aspects support this: birth rates in the country have been consistently decreasing; the country’s economy is declining; and the interviewed target group conditioned starting a family or enlarging their current one on having sufficient financial resources.

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