Business tourism a means of dynamising the life of local communities

The touristic expansion happens easier in a balanced climate, with standards that guarantee a constant ecologic balance and avoid the overuse of resources, pollution and any other negative impacts on the environment. MICE – Meeting, Incentive, Convention and Exhibition Industry – represents one of the industries with the highest rate of growth in the world, but unfortunately it is poorly developed in Romania. In Romania, the tourism, as a socio–economic phenomenon, integrates in the country’s economy, having the necessary conditions for accentuated growth and the optimisation of the degree of usage of the touristic stock. According to the recommendations of the World Tourism Organisation, Romania should focus on the cultural, ecologic, events and spa tourism. The prognosis of the World Tourism and Travel Council from the United States of America show that by the year 2020, the rhythm of growth of the business and events tourism in Romania will be of about 8% yearly. In this context, our country may occupy an important position in the MICE touristic activities market, if it would use the existing touristic potential and future investments in order to create favourable conditions for this type of tourism. We bring into the debate the existence of equipment which could help the business tourism, the presence of beautiful landscape areas (the Danube Delta, the Black Sea seaside, medieval cities and monasteries, touristic resorts from the Carpathians also.), presentation of the local folk traditions and crafts, the chromatic spectrum of the seasons in Romania and not lastly the folklore and gastronomy. These could be joined by the existence of a rich cultural life – especially in the large cities and touristic resorts-, the presence of museums and memorial houses, and we could not exclude the areas which have preserved their natural potential and rare fauna species. This work aims to emphasize business tourism as a sustainable form of tourism, which can lead to a relaunch in services and economic development of the local communities in a competitive international economy.