The Contribution of Social Enterprises to the Development of Tourism. The Case of Romania

Over the past two decades, social enterprises have played a key role in the development of emerging economies. Apart from being providers of employment opportunities for vulnerable groups, they are often important initiators of lasting projects, providing a series of services that normally should have been offered by the government. Although social economy is given an increasingly greater attention in literature, the impact of this specific sector to the development of tourism has not been deeply researched, thus remaining largely unknown. To this aim, the article will discuss the relationship between social economy and tourism. Apart from providing a literature review regarding social economy, its vehicles and their impact on tourism, the paper includes a research using secondary data, collected from external sources: statistical data indicating the development of the social economy sector and the record of the number of tourists in all the development regions of Romania. The results indicate that the regions registering the largest number of associations and foundations active in the field of tourism have recorded a positive evolution in the number of tourist arrivals. The research can be further developed in a more complex study, addressing professionals in this specific economy sector.