Commercialization of Holidays in the Protected Natural Areas - Form of the Sustainable Development in Tourism

Sustainable development of tourism in the protected areas should be regarded as a continuous improvement process in the management quality of the protected natural areas that are included in the tourist circuit as well as of the ecological tourism products, merchandised by the travel agencies. In Romania, the best-represented types of protected natural areas are the biosphere reservations, our country having three of these areas, followed by 13 national parks and 14 natural parks. The total surface of the protected areas in Romania is of approximately 1.9 million hectares, which represents almost 8% from the total surface of the country. Regarding the structure, we notice the typological diversity and the alignment to the international standards and IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) category system. The fieldwork done at the 2009 (March 19th – 22nd) Romanian Tourism Fair has shown the fact that, even if they recognize the benefits of the vacations in protected areas, the travel agencies’ preoccupations of creating specialized packages have been reduced, displaying a poor offer, or a special offer created at the tourists’ request. The research was realized within the project called “Dynamics of the implementation of community policies in the valuing of the Romanian protected areas through tourism and designing architecture of integrated management for them”. Consequently, considering, on the one hand, the advantages of the vacations in protected areas and, on the other hand, the tourists’ increasing interest towards this type of vacation is necessary in the future, a more intense involvement of the travel agencies, but also of the protected natural areas administrations in their promotion, fructification and sustainable development.