TOURIST IMAGE OF ROMANIA REVIEWED BY INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL GUIDES. COMPARATIVE STUDY: ENGLISH, FRENCH AND GERMAN EDITIONS

Abstract

The number of tourists willing to benefit from a foreign country’s tourist services is largely determined by both general and tourist image of the chosen destination. Represented by the tourists’ way of perceiving and retrospecting to the area of destination, the tourist image is mainly influenced by a wide range of sources of information, reason for which analysing tourist informational materials about Romania is a must when it comes to examine it as a tourist destination from foreigners viewpoint. Hence, the article deals with three travel guides (published in international languages: English, French and German) that highlight the most relevant aspects related to Romania’s tourism supply, whose specialized presentation reflects on differential perspectives that potential tourists tend to embrace. The main purpose of this paper is to reveal what kind of information the investigated guidebooks consider relevant to share with the readers and how the authors of the three editions decide to provide it. Concerning the methodology that mediated this research, the methods that stand out regard observation, analysis, synthesis, graphic and cartographic ones which served specific objectives, likewise: identifying, analyzing and comparing the manner in which Romania could be seen by foreigners even without visiting to this state.