Introduction. Apparently medicine and tourism have represented for a while distinct domains, both in terms of research and even in popular culture. While medicine is widely known as dedicated exclusively to healing and treating patients suffering from various diseases, tourism, popular since ancient times in relation to healing, is based on a person’s motivation towards obtaining a pleasant experience in optimal conditions that already require the existence of a good state of health. Considering the emergence of new challenges in medicine, mostly in terms of demand, there is a phenomenon of directing preferences or needs in order to obtain medical services in a relaxing touristic environment. Due to the rapid development of medical tourism, we consider opportune to study this phenomenon, both from the perspective of a social and economic impact and from the need to reorganize the tourism activity, emphasized with new forms and modern concepts. Material and method. As a limited number of research can be found related to medical tourism, and generally covers travelling for medical treatments or interventions, and also a few publications are dealing with theoretical aspects of this form of tourism, the main purpose of the article is to bring a scientific contribution to the global field of medical tourism, especially regarding the tourist expectations and attitudes towards an internal medical tourism offer. Using a quantitative research methodology, we aimed to achieve the following secondary objectives: identifying the interest, intention and reasons of respondents to practice medical tourism, establishing the level of confidence in the medical specialization of certain cities, assessing the level of knowledge and general perception on a treatment specifics in spa resorts structured in galaxy clusters. Results and discussions. Focusing on both national and international research, we have reached the conclusion that there is a lack of specific statistical indicators to analyze or compare the phenomenon of medical tourism. The shortcomings that are considered in the research may be caused mainly by inconsistencies of defining different concepts related to medical tourism or the confusion generated by the use of terms specific to medical or health tourism. Thus, the main objective of our research is to identify relevant aspects regarding the values, perception and attitudes of potential domestic medical tourists towards Romania’s medical tourism offer. Conclusions. There are certain limitations to our research, but it can surely become a basis for further developments regarding galaxy clusters and their impact in relation to a tourist’s needs. Keywords: medical tourism, spa resorts, medical providers, medical services demand, balneary tourism,
This paper attempts to empirically investigate the main variables that might exert a significant influence over the green purchase decisions of a Romanian consumer. An online survey was conducted on a sample of 915 individuals. The objectives of the study aim to evaluate the influence of different types of variables (related to the person, the environment, the product and the reference group) on the decision to purchase green products. For data analysis, both descriptive statistics measurements and a logit regression model were used. One of the most important findings shows that there is a significant and positive relationship between environmental factors (e.g., pollution reduction, greenhouse effect reduction) and the decision to purchase organic products; furthermore, Romanian consumers are less willing to pay high prices for green products. By offering important information on new variables relevant for a deeper understanding of a consumer located in a green emerging market such as Romania, this study may be useful for both academics and companies that could be interested in entering new local markets.
This paper aims at analyzing key information regarding the value creation resulted from providing tourism services by Romanian traditional and online travel agencies in relation to the development of knowledge-intensive service activities as part of their internal operations and the usage of outsourced services. Knowledge-intensive service activities and the field of knowledge-intensive business services have gained great importance in the economy of emerging countries such as Romania. Moreover, the impact of these specialised services and activities in tourism have not been subject to many thorough domestic or worldwide researches. As a result, the study will bring a new perspective regarding the implications of innovation and investments in technology, human resources and specialized knowledge in order to develop a new form of value creation, increased customer’s confidence and high profitability for the company. In order to achieve the indicated objectives, both the theoretical and empirical studies are used. The empirical study consists in collecting secondary data such as professional reviews and dedicated studies and reports from conferences and demonstrations on the subject. Also, the conducted analysis gathers mainly quantitative but also qualitative data, by applying a particularized survey and a brief interview. The results illustrate an integrative framework of the importance gained by knowledge intensive services in the process of value-creation in a tourism agency and also the key aspects regarding the new adapted form of tourism products through dynamic packaging. This study does not only capture and details the main aspects regarding the importance of knowledge-intensive service activities in the development of tourism companies, but also highlights the main features regarding customer’s satisfaction through the concept of perceived value-in-use (PVI) and the new successful products created and provided to a complete new generation of clientele.
From what in March 2020 seemed as a simple health issue, the Covid-19 pandemic has led to a global crisis with a huge social, economic and educational impact. As a result, many countries that were not prepared for such a situation, in terms of infrastructure, had to abruptly adapt with the resources they had to their disposal at that time. For example, in Romania, most schools and universities moved their classes online via different online platforms, but students from rural areas were not able to attend school at all. The present study aims to evaluate students’ perceptions and difficulties regarding online (blended) learning compared to traditional classroom attendance with a main focus on the difficulties encountered in the process of learning economic subjects. We performed a quantitative research by implementing an online questionnaire which was sent out by the end of the second semester of 2020 – 2021 school year. The respondents were freshmen from The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, The Faculty of Business and Tourism, enrolled in October 2020. Being aware that the quality of their learning might be affected via blended learning, all these respondents agreed to take part into various optional activities provided by the means of the Secondary Education Project – ROSE BT. Therefore, the current study might offer an useful insight into difficulties encountered by these students and solutions provided by both teachers and the university as an institution interested into facilitating the online education process. Moreover, the results will show possible factors that may determine difficulties into understanding various economic subjects and students’ own motion for improving their situation.
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