Sustainable Economic Local Development through Ecotourism

Green Entrepreneurship 3, a partnership program between the Romanian-American Foundation and the Romanian Environemntal Partnership Foundation, aims to achieve Sustainable Local Economic Development through Ecotourism.

Strategic Partner: Ecotourism Association of Romania

Budget: 1.700.000 USD (RAF contribution) and  928.000 USD (Partnership Foundation contribution)

Green Entrepreneurship 3 seeks to extend the success of the previous program phases, focusing on the development of ecotourism in 7 destinations in Romania. The main goal was to improve and stimulate economic development in these areas.

Financial support focused on strengthening these destinations through grants, technical assistance, and capacity building through training, consultancy, and networking activities.

Specifically, in the four years of this program phase, the following results were achieved:

Almost all targets related to the program indicators were met by the end of the second cycle. Most of these have well surpassed the planned numbers.

Specifically, the number of tourists hosted by the network of seven destinations per year was 26.83% higher than the initial estimate for the end of 2022. Comparing this growth to the baseline, a robust increase of 65% can be observed.

The number of pensions awarded the Eco-Romania certification at the end of the second cycle was 59. Compared to the baseline (23), this represents an increase of more than 150%.

The same trend was observed for the number of nights spent by tourists in the destinations. Overall, this indicator shows a percentage increase of more than 110% (113%) for the entire period.

The average stay per tourist improved again, reaching 2.87 nights/stay.

Regarding the occupancy rate of the pensions, this became higher than planned, reaching 35% on an annual level (2022). This is a huge achievement compared to the baseline data from December 31, 2018, when it was just 22%.

Regarding the creation of new jobs, the number of employees in the 7 destinations grew over the 4-year cycle by 297. Thus, the total number of people employed in the network at the end of the second cycle was 1001.