Tourism, entrepreneurship, and sustainability have been under the examination of this study, as we tried to map out the knowledge base yielded between the 1995 and 2020 timeframe. Bibliometric methods were employed in the analysis of articles. After analyzing the available articles, 322 articles concerning tourism and entrepreneurship, from which 14 articles on entrepreneurship and sustainable tourism were obtained. Further steps were made into refining the findings as we looked into which research streams related to sustainable tourism entrepreneurship have been in the spotlight.

Conventional wisdom in entrepreneurship education holds that educational institutions play a key influence in developing entrepreneurial capabilities. However, the buzzing, complex debates about entrepreneurship, as well as the varied signals from the market about the real outcome of such transformational undertakings, pave the way for additional in-depth research.

Cities are one of the main factors influencing the economic development and prosperity of societies. Smart cities, fueled by innovation and the Internet of Things, are built on three pillars - improving the residents’ quality of life, business competitiveness, and ensuring a sustainable environment. When applied within the six urban areas: economy, mobility, security, education, living conditions, and environment, cities can much faster make the transition to smart cities. The term smart city is often associated with the desire for accelerated modernization of various spatial and urban social interactions, the term “smart city” often being fuelled by technological developments. Proof of this are the terms used to define the same concept: “digital city”, “e-communities”, “intelligent city”, “e-City”, “wired city”. However, a smart city is called upon to respond to the needs of cities and societies alike to approach challenges in a novel and creative manner. The motivations for transforming existing cities into smart ones are obvious and straightforward. They come on one hand, from the threats of current demographic phenomena (population growth, migration, public health, safety, and living conditions), and also from the opportunities of solutions that can be brought by technological developments and innovation, transformations of generations (new “Digital” generations), and civic involvement (participation and inclusion) in the management of modern cities. Thus, the meaning associated to the name of the smart city does not only overlap with the idea of modernization and expansion, but also wants to combine, simultaneously, competitiveness and sustainable urban development. In the present study, by building upon a European vision as regards the development of smart cities, we have attempted to build an image of the European envisioned smart city, which is to be planned out and sought after through a series of strategic partnerships for innovation. Not only is the European vision detailed, but Romanian specific urban development and smart city tendencies shall also be briefly analyzed in this paper.

The term smart city is often associated with the desire for accelerated modernization of space and urban social interactions, especially based on Information and Communications Technologies. Smart cities are creative and sustainable areas that bring improvements on the quality of life, a friendlier environment and where the prospects of/for economic development are stronger. Such cities are to be considered as the sum of the various improvements in urban infrastructure, the quality of services provided to citizens, the operational costs of public administration. Romania has several key cities that have begun their pivot from regular and only digitized cities, to smart cities. According to information from the Romanian Smart City Association (ARSC), in 2018, at Romanian national level, 24 cities could be considered smart, the following cities being most visible in terms of how many projects have been undertaken so as to develop a smart city: Alba Iulia city has 60 such projects, Cluj-Napoca city has 10, Arad has 9, Sibiu and Oradea each have 8 projects, and Bucharest has started six such projects. At 2020 level, we notice an increase in the number of projects in the following way: Alba-Iulia now has 106 projects, Cluj-Napoca has 54 projects, Timisoara 26, Arad and Iasi have each 19 projects, Brasov and Bucuresti (Sector 4) have 18 projects each, Oradea 17, Sibiu 15, and Piatra Neamț 15 projects. The main areas of interest being Smart Mobility, Smart Governance, Smart Living, Smart Economy, Smart Environment, and Smart People. Having set goals of cutting energy costs by 30% in the field of public transportation and an increase of 45% in terms of innovation products that are to be sourced locally, the city of Oradea has attracted project worth 369 million euros, and this entire sum has been achieved through EU funded grants.

Tourism is one of the largest global industries; it generates economic and non-economic benefits for the world's nations, creates opportunities for many related industries, and has a significant contribution to local communities’ prosperity. Despite the extraordinary difficulties posed by the global pandemic crisis, its prospects to remain one of the main providers of jobs, income, and regional or global development are still encouraging. However, tourism is at a crossroads, and the contribution of entrepreneurship can give a new meaning, a new direction to the efforts to recover and resume growth. That is why it is important to understand the nature, scope, challenges, and dimensions of tourism entrepreneurship, the trends that accompanied its evolution in recent decades, and to perceive its future prospects. The emergence of new types and forms of tourism, the expansion of digital technology in most tourism sectors, challenges in existing practices, competition, and the changing models have to be carefully understood and analysed. Tourism and entrepreneurship, two driving forces for economic development, have been under the scrutiny of this study, as we tried to map out the knowledge base yielded between 1994 and 2020 timeframe. Bibliometric methods were employed in the analysis of articles. After analysing the available articles chosen with the criteria set of the study, 322 articles concerning tourism and entrepreneurship were obtained. Based on the citation analysis made with HistCite software, we identified the most influential authors, articles, and journals.