THE ORGANIZATION OF EVENTS: A POSSIBILITY OF TOURISM REVIVAL AFTER COVID? THE CASE OF SIBIU

The MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Congresses, Exhibitions) market has recently experienced a rapid growth, as actors at both acroeconomic and microeconomic levels recognized the great potential of this kind of tourism income generator. The events have also become elements that helped shape a tourism destination image or brand, through organized systems such as the portfolio model. However, the Covid pandemic, with its subsequent limitations and economic crisis, has severely impacted the events industry. No events, at any scale, were allowed to be organized, thus resulting in losses of billions of euros worldwide. With the economies slowly reopening, due to the partial lifting of Covid-related limitations, there seems to be room for the revival of tourism destinations. The analysis of previous studies has revealed a scientific gap, related to the possibility of reviving an urban destination through a large scale event. Therefore, the aim of the present scientific paper is to fill this gap, by looking into the perception of potential tourism demand on this subject. It also investigated the specifics of such an event, with a focus on the Romanian city of Sibiu. To this end a survey was conducted in the beginning of the year 2021, and its main results are presented in this article.

SELF-EFFICACY, ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT, AND EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE – FROM PUBLIC OFFICE

Employee performance is important because it is the foundation and direction of every organization. In this paper, we attempt to investigate the effect of self-efficacy on organizational commitment and employee performance, then the effect of organizational commitment on employee performance. The objectivity of the study refers to 100 informant units obtained through a survey of employees in the Tourism and Culture Office of East Kalimantan Province, Indonesia. The sampling approach uses a saturated sample method with Structural Equation Medelling-Partial Least Square (SEM-PLS). These findings indicate that self-efficacy has a significant effect on organizational commitment and employee performance. Similar to the previous results, organizational commitment has a significant effect on employee performance. With these findings, it can contribute to the role of a leader who must have optimal leadership characteristics, so that self-efficacy, organizational commitment, and employee performance continue to be optimal as expected.

THE INFLUENCE OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON THE ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTION OF YOUNG PEOPLE

COVID-19 is an extremely infectious disease and a danger to human health, causing deaths worldwide. The aim of the paper was to identify how the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic negatively influenced the entrepreneurial intentions of young people. The study starts from the hypotheses that entrepreneurial intentions among young people have decreased due to the pandemic and that the existence of entrepreneurs in the family or circle of friends can positively influence young people. A review of the literature has created an overview of the importance of entrepreneurship in a country's economy and how the pandemic affected the entrepreneurs. To collect data, a questionnaire was distributed among young people between 16 and 35 years old. Following the evaluation of the respondents' answers, the two hypotheses were validated. It was found that young people who already have their own business also have relatives or friends who are entrepreneurs, who influenced them to follow the path of entrepreneurship. The pandemic has negatively affected young people, as before March 2020, 35.6% of young people wanted to start their own business, now 24.4% are undecided due to restrictions and uncertainty, and 1.6% gave up the idea setting up a business. Thus, we can conclude that the pandemic has caused disruptions to the economy and entrepreneurship, raising many challenges for current and future businesses.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE NUMBER OF TOURISTS ARRIVED IN ROMANIA'S DEVELOPMENT REGIONS AND THE GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT

At national level, the contribution of tourism to the formation of the Gross Domestic Product is quite significant, considering the year 2019, when the contribution of tourism was 6.1% (World Travel & Tourism Council, 2021). Thus, the connection between tourism and Gross Domestic Product is indisputable. The purpose of this study is to find out the influence of the number of tourists arriving in the development regions of Romania on the Gross Domestic Product. The regression method was applied for data processing, using the statistical program EViews. The highest increase in the Gross Domestic Product, depending on the increase in the number of tourists, is registered in the South-Muntenia Development Region, and the smallest increase is registered in the Bucharest-Ilfov Development Region. The results show that a large number of tourists does not necessarily mean generating a considerable increase in Gross Domestic Product.

THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOR IN THE RETAILING INDUSTRY OF LEBANON

COVID-19 has changed many aspects of human lives. Life was paused for a while and humanity has been exposed to many threats unprepared at most levels. Several studies were conducted to understand human behavior amid crises and their behavior during COVID-19. Panic and spiritual buying dominates the buying behavior. This research investigates the emerged trends to the retail industry amid COVID-19. Several hypotheses were tested to understand the cause and effect relationship between the brick-and-mortar and online shopping. In order to reach a realistic result a quantitative research was conducted and a non-probability convenience sampling method was used where 191 respondents answered the survey questions on a 5 point Likert and nominal scales. It was found that consumer behavior is common across different countries amid COVID-19 with slight variation related to online shopping due to lack of trust with online sources. It was noticed that Lebanese post the pandemic became less price sensitive towards health products as they seek quality and willing to pay more to get it.

A RETROSPECTIVE LOOK AT THE EVOLUTION OF ROMANIAN TOURISM, AT THE BORDER BETWEEN THE MILLENNIA (1989-2019)

During the last 30 years we have witnessed major changes in tourism worldwide due to a lot of factors. Changes in political situation in Eastern Europe open a lot of countries to international tourism. Changes in air transport made more accessible some overseas or island destination. The increase of general welfare boosted the demand for tourism and the stability of the socio-political environment sustains a steady upward trend in international tourism arrivals. Looking back at Romania’s tourism we see a period with major structural changes and some major turning points. A brief evolution of the sector is presented with an emphasis on the most important years. The most important regulations are presented in this paper together with their impact on Romania’s tourism sector. To show a more accurate image we include main statistical information about this topic demonstrating that tourism is an important part of Romanian economy.

DEVELOPMENT OF WINE SECTOR – A WAY TO SUSTAIN WINE TOURISM IN ROMANIA

This article aims to identify the influence of wine sector toward wine tourism in Romania. The article describes both wine sector and wine tourism. The study attempts to demonstrate the correlation between these two sectors pointing out that wine tourism in Romania is still in a developing phase. Therefore, understanding the link between these two merging industries and how they influence each other stands as the goal of the paper. Overall, the results suggest that there is a significant wine-growing potential with a conclusive outcome in wine tourism sector.