The Potential of Rural Tourism in the Valley of BeiuşThe studied communities are Lunca, Rieni, Sudrigiu, Magura, Chiscau, Bradet, Dumbravani, Stancesti, Pietroasa, Gutani, Cociuba Mica, Poieni de Sus, Poieni de Jos, Buntesti, Lelesti, being near the rivers "Crisul Pietros" and "Crisul Negru". These represent 13% of the existing rural settlements of the area. The questionnaires contained questions referring to the living conditions, unexploited areas, facilities and the agricultural situation of the household, and questions concerning the social and professional situation and age. The majority of the houses are made of burned brick (56.06%), each of them having 4 rooms (55.45%). Building Materials Used in the Area Table no. 1
According to table 1 the majority of the used materials are modern building materials that shows good living conditions, 14.85 % of the buildings are built by combining of wood and BCA and BCA or wood and burned brick. The majority of the buildings have more than 4 rooms, as table 2 shows. The Situation of the Rooms per Home Table no. 2
The great number of homes with more than 4 rooms correlates with the number of families that have more than 4 members (50.91%). From the 330 researched households 178 have the courtyard paved (53.94% and 152 homes 46.06%) have no pavement in the courtyard, fact that proves that despite of modernisation the traditional aspect of the houses is kept by some of the villagers. Most of the researched houses have two or three unused rooms as we can see from table no. 3 The Situation of the Free Rooms per Home Table no. 3
The agricultural area, formed in this case of arable land and hay fields is in average of 2 hectares, from which 138.3 ares/household arable land and 79.16 ares per household hay fields. This distribution of the agricultural area shows us that in spite of the fact that the land is not very productive people try to obtain certain products necessary for living and they exchange the surplus for other agricultural products that they cannot produce (for example, the potatoes in the villages of Chiscau and Magura are changed for corn from the villages from lower altitude). Besides the cultivation of plants people raise animals, too. Only a few households don't have animals. The situation of the animals in the researched group is presented as follows: The Average Number of Animals by Categories Table no. 4
We can observe that every household raises animals for their own necessities and less for commercialisation. We wanted to know in what degree is the land exploited and we found out that from the 330 researched households only 11 don't exploit their land. The vast majority of the households work only their own land and there are only a few that rent land in order to exploit it. The average exploited surface is 1.88 ha. This aspect shows that almost all the households in the area can offer meal to the tourists from their own household, so the agricultural character of the households is confirmed. Approximately 275 households out of the researched ones have at least a member that works only in agriculture plus the minor children and the employees of the local companies that work in agriculture, too. The situation of the households regarding the number of the members that work in non-agricultural activities is as follows (table 5.): The Grouping of Households by the Criteria of Members that Work in Non-agricultural Activities. Table no. 5
Most of the researched homes have water and WC in house - 291 homes that represent 88.18% and only 39 households, 11.82% that don't have water and electricity in the house. From the houses that have water inside, 95.88% are boiling water using wood and the rest coal and electricity. Ways of Water Heating Table no. 6
Unlike the number of those that have water in the house, the number of those that have sewer is lower - 275 households, 83.33%, the rest (55 households) don't have sewer system. The sewer system is simple, it doesn't have a clarifying tank. Approximately 100 households out of the ones that were researched have a WC in the courtyard as well as in the house, and 230 only in the courtyard. All these facilities that are present in the agricultural households make us affirm that there are conditions for the development of the rural tourism through the existing free rooms in almost every household as well as due to the camping place. 225 of the researched households are willing to rent rooms for tourists that mean 68.18%. The average of the free rooms is 2 per house. One third of the questioned households are not willing to rent rooms for tourists. The number of those that cannot serve a meal to the tourists is 45.76%. The difference until 100%, about 176 households can serve the meal to the tourists for about an average of 6 persons per household. The heating source for the heating of the rooms is the wood and the gas-used mostly for cooking. From the total of 255 households, 198 (7.65%) prefer to practice the rural tourism alone and only 22.35% want to associate with others. 60.3% of the questioned said that there is needed a local intermediary in order to bring tourists to the region and to be responsible for them. Regarding the payment for a person per day, the questioned persons think that an average of 61000 Lei would cover the accommodation expenses and if meal is served too, an average of 150000 Lei would be a right price (these are prices from summer 2000). Practising these prices is ment to raise the low incomes of the rural households. The average monthly income of a household is 2620624 Lei and from this income 13.66% is obtained from agriculture. This situation shows us that a household obtains an average of 350000 Lei per month from agricultural activities. Mortan Maria
Faculty of Economics |
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