摘要：In Romania, after 1990, the number of small towns has been increased, but theyare confronted with migration and negative birth rate due to the competition with cities,beeing less attractive for the economic investors. For these reasons, tourism has been seeingas a panacea fo any issue regarding the (re)development of an area, settlements. Thus, thestudy gives to the local authorities, developers and planners some relevant aspects of thetourism limits and its potential for the regional and/or local development. The outputs ofthe study show that the tourism can’t represent a magic solution, because a lot of towns withtourist function are faced with depopulation and decrease in accommodation offer and inthis framework, the option for this activity must be carefully analyzed in local planning.Based on two ways to obtain pertinent responses: analysis of field observation and statisticsdata in quantitative way, the results have a general application and can be used to diagnosethe opportunities for tourism development in small towns from Romania
关键词：tourism; panaceea; small towns; development; Romania
