The profile of the tourism information center officer in Romania

Local destinations incorporate various stakeholders, often including a host community, and can form a network with other destinations to shape larger destinations. To attract tourists, destinations must consider the travel basic costs, convenience, and timelines. Like other consumers, tourists weigh costs against the benefits of specific destinations and investment of time, effort, and resources against a reasonable return in education, experience, fun, relaxation, and memories. Convenience takes various meanings in travel decisions: time involved in travel from airport to lodging, language barriers, cleanliness and sanitary concerns, access to interests (beaches, attractions, amenities) and special needs (Kotler, 2002). Tourist Information Officers are our front line in all tourism matters, along with Travel Consultants and with the front-desk personnel of other tourism stakeholders. Working in tourist information centers around Romania, they are able to promote tourism destinations, tourist attractions and provide information and reservation services for sightseeing, travel, accommodation and tours. They also assess tourist opportunities for local communities. The purpose of this paper is to deliver a brief status quo of the TICs Officers in Romania and some suggestions for the improvement of the service of tourism information centers.