THE DARK SIDE OF TOURISTIFICATION PHENOMENON – A SHORT POINT OF VIEW
Emanuela-Adina COCIȘ1, Alexandru-Sabin NICULA1
1 “Costin C. Kirițescu” National Institute for Economic Research of the Romanian Academy, Centre of Mountain Economy (CE-MONT), 725700 Suceava, Romania. E-mails: adinaemanuelacocis@gmail.com; sabin.nicula@ince.ro
ABSTRACT. – The Dark Side of Touristification Phenomenon – A Short Point of View. Tourism is considered to be a socio-economic development engine worldwide, its importance being undeniable at international scale. Because tourism represents such a notorious activity and global phenomenon, new concepts inevitably arise that need further understanding and clarification. One of them is touristification. Browsing through related scientific literature, one can see that touristification concept is a complex process mainly used with a negative connotation to describe tourism’s impact for a specific area and on a specific group of people, their daily activities on one hand, and on the environment on other hand. Touristification is given many meanings by scholars, from an “empty” concept to an element of analysis without an unanimously accepted definition, this short point of view trying to shed a little bit of light on the matter highlighting the negative impacts of this phenomenon that manifests in touristic hot-spots worldwide.
Keywords: touristification, tourism impacts, touristic hot-spots, sustainability, environment.