Geographic axes and cultural diversity in Romania

Abstract

Culture as a factor for sustainable development reaffirms the importance of local and regional identity and specificity, which implies the need to protect heritage and raise community awareness of its value. These objectives position culture as the fourth pillar of sustainable development, alongside the economic, social, and environmental sectors. The measures support the contribution of culture and cultural heritage to sustainable development, defining territorial vitality by highlighting elements of local and regional identity and by better protecting cultural heritage. To protect heritage, it is necessary to analyse and present data on cultural tourism, including details of the cultural development of certain peoples and acculturation phenomena, all of which form part of a heritage that can then be exploited for tourism purposes. This is the premise from which I started, trying to highlight the possibilities of tourist exploitation of the existing heritage. The research objectives are:   The exploitation of cultural resources - elements of local and regional identity - for sustainable territorial development and high quality of life along geographical axes; Better protection of cultural heritage, based on a knowledge of the situation through the development of a tourism program based on cultural diversity in the area of the geographical axes: Siret, Mures, and Bistrita-Nasaud county. Thus, to achieve the objectives following observations in the field and through the cultural diversity present on the territory of Romania given by the heritage of the past (over two thousand years of history) we will be able to outline the geographical axes. The research theme sets the direction of action by promoting an integrated approach to territorial development interventions, highlighting the role of culture in the development of the geographical axis.

Key words: cultural tourism, cultural tourism axis, heritage, sustainable development, geographical axis

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