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This article focuses on agritourism as potential linkage between the national park administrations and the tourism industry that acts in the rural communities situated near the national parks, by investigating the level of development of the agritourism industry and by revealing tourists benefits after visiting the areas. The study was conducted in two national parks from Romania and the surrounding areas. Agritourism plays an important role for the rural communities located around the national parks since it is one of the main sources of revenues not only for guesthouse owners, but also for the whole community. Tourism indicators are determined to emphasize the evolution of the agritourism industry in both regions, while the contingent valuation technique was used to elicit information on tourists' hypothetical behaviour as regard to their visit to the national park and surrounding areas. The questionnaire was implemented during the summer of 2011 in Calimani National Park and Ceahlau National Park. The results indicate that agritourism can be considered as a potential linkage to maintain sustainability goals through a partnership between park managers and the tourism industry, in the case of the two analyzed national parks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the steps of estimating the recreation value of a national park by combining two non-market valuation methods: the Travel Cost Method and the Contingent Valuation Method. The questionnaire was designed according to both methods by formulating specific questions. The survey was implemented in Piatra Craiului National Park during the summer of 2011, one of the most visited national parks from Romania. The recreation value in terms of consumer surplus per trip is derived from the Poisson model and in terms of willingness to pay per trip from the random effects probit model. It was found that tourists gain significant benefits from recreating in the park. The estimated recreation values are expressed in monetary units and provide justification for attracting funds for developing tourism opportunities in a sustainable way. Moreover, the findings show that tourists are aware of the value of the park and do appreciate the opportunities offered by the park administrations. However, the process of revealing the benefits people gain after visiting the park should receive more attention from the decision makers when developing the management plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]