The mountain area of Suceava county has many unique and well-preserved tourist resources that give personality to this space through age, originality, traditional rural households and a generous number of accommodation places. The data of the National Institute of Statistics from 2018 on the capacity of tourist accommodation, places Suceava county on the third place, after Constanţa and Braşov counties. The present study follows the perception of the representatives of the public administration vis-à-vis rural tourism and its development in the mountain area of Suceava county. The research highlights the role of local authorities in the development of rural tourism and its promotion from the point of view of those in local management. The methodology is based on the survey conducted on the basis of the questionnaire by the method of face-to-face interview, between September 1 and November 30, 2019 in the mountain area of Suceava county. It is found that in all the localities in the mountain area, the interviewees are aware of the existing tourism potential and have responded to the requests made by the tour operators in the 36 studied communes. In conclusion, following the analysis of the results, it is found that rural tourism is an economic alternative for the inhabitants of the rural area of Suceava, with real possibilities of development, benefiting from the support of the local authorities.

The measures taken by the states of the world to limit the disease with the Sars Cov 2 virus imposed, in the first phase of the pandemic, numerous restrictions on mobility and physical distance, a situation that significantly changed the way tourism is carried out worldwide. In this context, some typologies of tourist activities were highlighted, which before the pandemic represented only a small segment of tourist flows and economic benefits. The natural areas with dispersed tourist objectives, with low population densities, the local villages, have entered the sphere of interest of some social categories of population that access the international tourism or the urban cultural areas. Virtual tourism has gained more and more ground, the circulation of tourist information in the online environment has intensified through photos showing the behavior of tourists in the circumstances of the pandemic. The study aims to measure, through a comparative and diachronic analysis (before and during the pandemic), the perception and representation of tourism through geocoded photography and assess how the attractiveness of tourist resources in two geographical areas (Suceava County and Maramures County) has changed. Among the existing web photo distribution platforms, we analyzed the geocoded photos on the Picasaweb platform, this platform being in direct contact with the web service and Google street viewing services, popular in Romania. The research aims at analyzing the photographic appearances of the localities from the two counties, Suceava and Maramures in the period February - August 2020. Research methods used: analysis of tourist areas, statistical recording of tourist flows during the pandemic, comparison of the two regions with the intensity of tourist traffic reflected in the attached photos online, cartographic method by presenting tourist information on territorial options. In conclusion, it is observed that the hostile period of the pandemic had a positive impact on the sustainability of tourism, especially of those territories that are of great interest and became overcrowded in the same period of previous years.

The mountainous area of Suceava County presents real opportunities for tourist development, having numerous unique and well-preserved tourist resources, highlighted by their antiquity, originality and accessibility, a large number of traditional rural households and a generous number of accommodation spaces. Starting from the hypothesis that the tourist offer of the mountain area is attractive, this research aims to analyze the size of accommodation infrastructure in the mountainous area of Suceava County based on data provided by national authorities National Institute of Statistics and National Authority for Tourism and site specialized for the promotion of accommodation structures. The research methodology was performed by processing the data using Excel and the elaboration of thematic maps based on the results obtained. The data and information were obtained by studying specialized articles, on similar studies from other. In conclusion, based on the data provided by official sources and specialized sites, a discrepancy can be found in terms of the total number of reception structures operating at this time in the Suceava mountain area and implicitly leads to different data regarding the indicator of overnight stays in tourist accommodation structures.