DEMAND AND OFFER IN BALNEARY TOURISM OF ROMANIA IN THE PERIOD 2010-2019.

The paper aimed to analyze the demand and offer in Romania's balneary (spa) tourism in the decade 2010-2019 in order to identify the main trends and correlations and the aspects which have to be improved for increasing spa tourism contribution in the economy and to people's health and relaxation. The data provided by National Institute of Statistics were processed using usual methods for dynamic analysis, trend equation, regressions and correlations, and determination coefficient. In 2019, Romania's offer in spa tourism was represented by 37 balneary resorts, 620 units with reception function for tourist accommodation, and 35,643 places, while the demand consisted of 1.33 million tourist arrivals and 4.81 million overnight stays. All this figures represent much more than in 2010, except the number of places which declined by 2.3%. Romanian spa tourism keeps 7.1% of the number of tourist accommodation units, 10% of the number of places, 8.5% of tourist arrivals, and 16% overnight stays. A positive and strong connection was found between the number of tourist arrivals and overnight stays, but also an unbalanced ratio between overnight stays and number of places as well as between tourist arrivals and number of places. Therefore, balneary tourism has to be much more sustained to become a strong branch of Romania's tourism. A new strategy is required to better valorize the richness of natural resources, to continue investing in infrastructure, to diversify spa services, and to promote more intensively Romania's spa tourism abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]