Discussing the Spatial Underpinnings of Tourism Policy and Planning in Romania

Abstract

"The paper examines the spatial concepts and mechanisms that drive the reconfiguration of the tourism space and provide policy-relevant informa tion. Mapping the spatial patterns of tourism supply and demand at finely-grained data over the last two decades, the analysis employs spatiotemporal and scaling methods to capture the interactions and de pendencies among tourism concentrations. The findings point to space-tourism realignments based on heterogeneous concentration patterns and trajectories of change, supply growth and ex pansion at the first level of contiguity, and diffused domestic vs. polarized international arrivals. The bi nary approach of tourism concentrations of supply and demand with varying location quotients enables the identification of both differences and similarities in terms of contextual and tourism development in dicators. In support of context-sensitive policy inter ventions, we argue that space should be regarded as a central dimension of the tourism development pol icy. Providing a snapshot of the tourism concentra tions in 2019, the study may count as a baseline ref erence for further analyses in post-pandemic times."