Annals of the „Constantin Brâncuşi” University of Târgu Jiu, Economy Series, Issue 6/2013 „ACADEMICA BRÂNCUŞI” PUBLISHER, ISSN 2344 – 3685/ISSN-L 1844 - 7007 ABOUT GENERAL INFRASTRUCTURE AND ACCOMMODATION SYSTEM IN ROMANIAN BALNEOLOGY ILIE ROTARIU, professor dr. Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, ALEXANDRE KOSTOV, PhD., Director, Institute for Balkan Studies, Sofia, Bulgaria e-mail:ilie.rotariu@ulbsibiu.ro, kostov_al@yahoo.co> Abstract A strong infrastructure is a precondition for the development of balneology. On this base new tourism might build the modern services that supply the experiences. The key factor is the labor force: an EU project about labor force in Romania and Bulgaria in balneology allow us to present the preliminary findings focusing on general infrastructure and accommodation which allow the development of the balneology as well as the additional conditions as the existence of a social pact, easy access facilities etc. Our paper gives more details about the accommodation facilities in Romania insisting about the results of the transition and privatization of the former socialist facilities and the transformation of the property into private ones and the consequences of this. It also present the capability of new developed accommodation units built after 1990 and how they might compete in an international competition. The findings force us to conclude that the actual facilities do not allow the balneology resorts to compete in the international competition and might fill only a poor and low demanding tourists Key Words: balneology, accommodation system, privatization, competition Clasificare JEL: M01, O02, I01 1.Main conditions that the general tourism infrastructure must provide to allow balneology development Our paper is based on a work in progress on the preliminary findings of Phase 2 of the Project “Creating a transnational network for balneology tourism” Bulgarian Ministry of Labor and Social Policy – EU Human Resource Development Operational Program BG051PO001-7.0.07 about labor force in balneology in Romania and Bulgaria. During our research we have found out that some elements of the general tourism infrastructure which we believe to be essential for the accession of Romanian balneology tourism in the spectrum of global tourism which we present before getting into the subject of the labor force. “Compulsory invisible infrastructure” of which we mention only two elements here: - The capacity of the economy to generate income for a sufficient number of people in order to include them in mass tourism to avoid that 80% of potential tourists (internal tourism) are lost. We do not have to stay only on the GIP per capita for Romania. When we mention the assurance of income which is sufficient for tourism, we do not refer to the exceptional rich cases or the weekend periods, but rather the entire tourist “basket” of a global type (similar to developed countries). The impact of a loss of 80% of tourists on an economy is obvious. Do not forget that international tourism arrivals means only 20% of total, in average. 80% is domestic! We do not argument any further the perspectives of this idea, it is included in the concept of general development. - The existence of the social pact, either implicit or explicit regarding the existence, within the life standard, of the holiday as a whole: rejuvenation, treatment, business, etc. The “trader tourism”, or grey or illegal areas, even if the nature of the ordinary Romanian in this case, the “travel” is not tourism: hospitality and leisure, only tolerance from inhabitants of the destination for the so called tourists. This kind of social pact, theoretically is still in force after 1989, at least by the Law for holiday ticket vouchers; the market of holiday vouchers currently has a value of 1.3 million euros and only 19% of them were used for spas services. In Romania, unfortunately, there are still many employees who do not use leave to go somewhere on vacation. - The legislative system: an essential condition for the good functioning of international tourism. The Romanian Tourism Ministry has adopted actual legislation with long hesitation and delay, although the initiative 233