THE CHANGING GEOGRAPHY OF ROMANIAN TOURISM

Since the 'revolution' of 1989 Romania has been in a state of transiti on from a command to a market economy. Romanian tourism is similarly i n transition, and there are many geographical components of this trans ition. Before 1989 Romania was dependent upon visitors from Poland, Cz echoslovakia and the German Democratic Republic, but recently these ma rkets have declined rapidly. There has been a significant increase in visitors from neighbouring states (particularly the Republic of Moldov a and Ukraine), although many of these are for the purpose of trading rather than tourism. Domestic tourism has collapsed dramatically and m any resorts are experiencing decline. Romania has considerable tourist potential, particularly for heritage tourism, but the numbers of West ern tourists are very low and the challenges facing tourism developmen t in Romania are formidable. These include the need to overcome the ne gative image of the country held by many Westerners, and also an urgen t need for improvements to tourist accommodation and infrastructure.