TOURISM AND ITS INFLUENCE UPON MACRO-ENVIRONMENT IN
                           ROMANIA


                                   Scorţe Carmen, University of Oradea


ABSTRACT: Tourism is a complex social and economic phenomenon specific to modern civilization, an
essential activity in the life of nations, being strongly influenced by the freedom of travel and the
evolution of society. Addressing to large shares of the population and meeting the human need for
travelling and knowledge, recreation and healing, tourism is characterized by a high momentum both
nationally and globally, resulting in a vast human and material potential, with important implications
upon the evolution of the entire society.
Hospitality and tourism industry are nowadays considered to stand for the largest business in the
world, being the main industry in point of their contribution to the gross world product, labor
committed as well as the most important capital investor.
The objective of our article is to analyze the evolution of several indicators of tourist traffic and their
influence on the macro-environment in Romania. As far as the research methodology is concerned, the
article is based on a positivist quantitative approach, being in the same time a longitudinal one, as we
present the evolution of various indicators measuring the degree of impact the hospitality industry has
on the national economy.
The main information sources for this research are published on the websites of various authorized
bodies (NIS, NBR, WTO), using exploratory method for analyzing the evolution of the phenomenon in
time, but I also considered the interpretive method when disclosing the analysis results.

Key words: Tourism, macro-environment, tourist traffic indicators

JEL Codes M21, E 29