Impacts and Conflicts Surrounding Dracula Park, Romania: The Role of Sustainable Tourism Principles

Sustainable tourism principles are applied to a historical case study of tourism-related impacts and conflicts over Dracula Park and its proposed location in Sighisoara (Romania). Analysis of this large theme park project reveals a highly political landscape, with complex interdependencies attributable to a diversity of stakeholders and issues ranging in scale and scope from the local to the global. Cultural impacts are a significant problem with the proposed park. Local civic action, as well as other domestic and international NGOs, played key roles in opposing the proposed location adjacent to the medieval town and World Heritage site of Sighisoara. The study shows the benefit of integrating broader, global principles such as the Global Code of Ethics (World Tourism Organisation, 1997) with local-level principles to guide project development, evaluation and destination sustainability. In particular, the conflicts surrounding this project point to the importance of developing process principles that can facilitate cultural sustainability, by enabling those who stand to be most impacted by tourism to participate directly in development decision-making.