The aim of this article is to investigate if Romanian rural localities hosting or situated within a natural WHS (World Heritage Site) have benefited from their situation and developed the local rural tourism. Research Design & Methods: Since the topic of this article had not been previously investigated for Romania, the research was constructed as a case study, exploring the available secondary data on tourism supply and demand. Within the case study, a combination of empirical methods was used in order to investigate two ratios (the survival rate and continuity ratio) constructed to study the sustainability of the offer of local tourism. Findings: Romanian rural localities hosting or being part of a WHS do not exploit properly their tourist potential. However, these localities are in a better position than common rural localities from the viewpoint of a sustainable tourism offer. Implications & Recommendations: Further studies on tourism demand and tourism governance for WHS localities are needed in order to help local governments to develop authentic and sustainable tourism for these areas. Contribution & Value Added: Given the sparse academic Romanian literature focusing on WHSs, this study contributes to this field and opens new avenues for research. Furthermore, the findings of this study add to the existing international literature by supporting the idea that simply the presence of a WHS in rural areas is not a panacea for promoting tourism.

"The present paper continues the work of Pop et al. (2019) on what concerns the drivers of rural accommodation development in Romania. The study covers the same period: 2005 to 2019. This study introduces a new factor / driver: the accessibility of communes via the national and county road network. Similar to the findings of Pop et al. (2019), the 2008 and 2012 ranks were established based on the existing tourist attractions. The 2012 rank is strongly influenced by 2008 ranks and, under the present study, by accessibility. Though, the influence of both ranks on lodgings (both under NIS and MoT data) remains weak to very weak hence suggesting the need to introduce new factors in order to explain the lodging development in rural areas. Keywords: rural tourism, lodging, resources, Romania JEL classification: L83 "

Modern rural tourism is an umbrella concept, including a wide range of (niche) type tourism related to the countryside/rural areas. The central attractions of rural tourism are induced by the closeness to nature and new cultural experiences related to (local) history and intangible heritage. The interest for a rural destination being increased by an environment considered appealing from natural and aesthetic viewpoints, allowing for various forms of recreation. This preliminary study answers the following question: which are the drivers of the accommodation development in rural areas in Romania? taking into consideration only the potential tourist attractions that could be identified based on official records (e.g. historic monuments, the status of resort for a given locality, the registered vineyards, the two rankings from 2008 and 2012). The overall conclusion of the study is that the potential tourist attractions have a relatively small influence on the development of Romanian rural lodgings. Therefore, more factors should be added in order to understand the accommodation development in rural areas in Romania. JEL Classification: L83

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