Radu-Ovidiu CIASCAI, Babes-Bolyai University, Romania
Cristina BOLOG, Babes-Bolyai University, Romania
Romania's mountainous rural areas have become real Pandora's boxes due to inter-linked problems caused by depopulation, deforestation, the degradation of specific local architecture, the low degree of social and economic well-being, the loss of local identity. The question marks regarding potential solutions have led us to examine the relationship between the cycling community and the local community that uses routes with an increase potential for cycling (cycing routes, marked hinking trails).
Cycling, through the specifics of the activity, contributes to the development of the local economy, and through the nature and characteristics of the practitioner is connected with nature and linked with the hosts. According to the literature, cycling facilities attract a large number of tourists, motivated to visit by the existence of these infrastructures, half of the cyclists' spendings are used on accommodation and food, contributing to the maintenance and development of local businesses, the land use for cycling leads to low land consumption and each kilometer of cycling infrastructure in Europe has created and sustain between 4 and 5 jobs.
The relations between the analyzed communities are reflected in the territory, in the landscape, but also in the less material aspects, related to the identity of the host community. We applied questionnaires for a significant period of time and on a territory located in the vicinity of a mountainous area, but with a very good connectivity with a large city in Transylvania (Cluj-Napoca), not far from the border of Hungary with Romania. The answers analyse outlined possibilities of solving problems identified in the area by using cycle tourism as a tool for rural regeneration.
Mots clés : rural mountainous areas|cycle tourism|slow travel|local economy|tourism regeneration
A105161CB