Sport tourism in Romania and the Romanian experience in organizing and hosting an international sport event: Case study; Bucharest International Marathon

Abstract

Sport and tourism are worldwide considered to be the modern niches for economic development, but only high developed countries have realized that to maximize their economic impact, sport and tourism must be considered as a whole. The tourism in Romania is currently under continuous development, due to several investments in general and touristic infrastructure and also due to the strategies of capitalization and promotion of the Romanian tourist potential. Different sports are practiced in Romania from ancient times and the Romanian sport made the country known worldwide through its legendary sportsmen, but only recently sport became also an element of tourist attraction. The rebirth of physical culture and Romania’s accession to European Union, offered to Romania the opportunity to exploit sport as a touristic product, generating tourist flows and tourist services consumption. Even if sport tourism is a new concept in Romania, in order to grow the economical impact of this new form of tourism, the development strategies are counting on the rehabilitation of general and specific (both touristic and sporting) infrastructure and on the exploiting of the most efficient form of sport tourism, the one related to organizing and hosting a sport event with international participation.