Can We Talk about Smart Tourist Villages in Mărginimea Sibiului, Romania?

George Moise, Agatha Popescu, Iulian Alexandru Bratu, Ion Răducuță (), Bogdan Gabriel Nistoreanu and Mirela Stanciu ()
Additional contact information
George Moise: Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Food Industry and Environmental Protection, ”Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, 5-7 Ion Ratiu Street, 550003 Sibiu, Romania
Agatha Popescu: Faculty of Management and Rural Development, University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Bucharest, 59 Mărăști Boulevard, District 1, 011464 Bucharest, Romania
Iulian Alexandru Bratu: Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Food Industry and Environmental Protection, ”Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, 5-7 Ion Ratiu Street, 550003 Sibiu, Romania
Ion Răducuță: Faculty of Animal Productions Engineering and Management, University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Bucharest, 59 Mărăști Boulevard, District 1, 011464 Bucharest, Romania
Bogdan Gabriel Nistoreanu: Faculty of Business Administration in Foreign Languages, Academy of Economic Studies, Piața Romană, 010374 Bucharest, Romania
Mirela Stanciu: Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Food Industry and Environmental Protection, ”Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, 5-7 Ion Ratiu Street, 550003 Sibiu, Romania

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 9, 1-23

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to evaluate some villages in the mountain area of Sibiu County, Romania, as “smart” tourist villages. The research was carried out in two stages: Stage 1 was collection of information on (a) food products registered in different national and international quality schemes and (b) the number of tourist structures by type, comfort category, and accommodation capacity. Stage 2 was a case study conducted among 32 rural tourism entrepreneurs from 3 villages in Mărginimea Sibiului, using a questionnaire with 22 items on the criteria for evaluation of “smart” villages. The answers were systematized, statistically processed, and interpreted. The main results are as follows: (a) Concerning products, producers, and gastronomic points (PGL) registered, there are 9 products in the quality scheme “mountain product”, 10 producers on the platform “Gusturisibiene”, 1 producer of “telemea de Sibiu”, a registered product with protected geographical indication, and 2 PGL. (b) The number of officially registered tourist structures is 93, of which 72% are agritourism guesthouses. (c) The results for the evaluation of villages as “smart” are that 78.2% of locals use the internet, 74% own at least one smart device, 60.16% of energy used is renewable. There are low values of water and air pollution; there are local job and business opportunities (93.75%); future local development activities will target agriculture with all its sectors and agritourism; public administrations have implemented 7 types of activities to increase the attractiveness of localities; and quality of life, services, and social life aspects are perceived to be at high standards.

Keywords: smart village; smart tourism; smart communities; rural development; M?rginimea Sibiului; Romania (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/9/7475/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/9/7475/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:9:p:7475-:d:1138179

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().