Towards a Business Model for Post-industrial Tourism Development in Jiu Valley, Romania

Abstract

The research is carried out in Petrila, a small town in Jiu Valley, Romania, a mono-industrial area, which was formed and developed on the basis of mining activity, an area that declined after 1990 and which now seeks a sustainable recovery formula, tourism development being one of the alternatives. The research was conducted to establish the premises for a Business Model for Petrila Theme Park. For this, firstly, the potential effects generated by the development of tourism, economic, social and environmental activities from the point of view of the inhabitants were determined. Thus, the model and hypotheses were tested to determine the relationship between the types of effects generated and the general community satisfaction. Also, are presented the results of evaluating the attitude of the inhabitants toward the development of a theme park and the use in this context of modern technologies such as augmented reality. The perspective opened by the presented research is to build an industrial tourist area, as an alternative to the closed mining activity.