Marinela ISTRATE, ”Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iasi, Romania, Romania
Ionel MUNTELE, ”Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iasi, Romania, Romania
The cultural vitality has an increasingly important role in urban development and revitalization strategies because improves the community image, enhances the quality of life, providing opportunities for sustainable tourism development.
Using data provided by National Institute for Research and Training and methodology established by The Urban Institute Washington (2006), our paper aims to analyze the relationship between cultural vitality and urban tourism development and to identify the cities with favorable conditions for successful cultural and tourist activities. We analyzed 41 Romanian cities (residences of counties) situated at 30 years distance from the major political - economic events that followed the communist regime fall in Central and Eastern Europe, being, thus, in a defining their identity process (including from cultural and tourist perspective).
The results indicated intense economic dynamics cities are growth poles of creative economy and top tourist destinations. We emphasize the surprise offered by smaller cities where cultural vitality exceeds economic development dynamic, fact reflected by high values ??of tourist flows. Some of the cities suffer from lack of interest offered for decades towards creative economy, unattractive for the entrepreneurs, cultural and tourist being secondary chapters of urban development strategies.
Conclusions reveal strong correlations between cultural vitality index and urban tourism development and permanent manifestation of some disparities between cities caused by unequal adaptation to new economic, social and community context.
Mots clés : Cultural vitality|Tourism sustainability|Communism heritage|Urban development
A104329MI