Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and rural development", Vol. 19 ISSUE 1
Written by Agatha POPESCU, Daniela PLESOIANU

The paper has comparatively analyzed the role of tourism in the economic growth of Bulgaria and Romania, using the specific system of indicators: GDP, employment, multiplicator effect, efficiency, investments, visitor exports, and competitiveness. The methodology was based on the formulas provided by literature at present and the data were collected from UNWTO Data Base. Bulgaria and Romania are important tourism destinations grace to their rich cultural and historical heritage, beautiful landscapes, landmarks, tourism forms, service quality and hospitality. Bulgaria has more visitors and receipts than Romania, but in absolute value, tourism has a higher contribution to GDP in Romania, while in relative value, 11.5 % of GDP is produced by tourism and in Romania just 5.3 %. Tourism supports employment 3.7 times better in Romania than in Bulgaria regarding the number of jobs. The multiplicator effect is almost similar in the both countries, proving that tourism growth stimulated the development of other economic sectors. Tourism increases labor productivity in the economy of the both countries, but 1.4 times more in Bulgaria. Visitor exports in Bulgaria are higher than in Romania, while investments in tourism are 4.5 higher in Romania than in Bulgaria. Tourism competitiveness is low in the both countries, but Bulgaria comes on a lower position than Romania in the international market. As a conclusion, both Bulgaria and Romania has to intensify the efforts to sustain tourism growth, its contribution to the development of the economy and become a more competitive sector. Bulgaria and Romania have to better evaluate all their resources, to diversify their offers, to improve service quality and increase tourism performance. Only in this way, a new tourism strategy could attract more visitors and increase the role of tourism in the economy and improve the image of each country in Europe and in the world.

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