Abstract:

The paper presents a comparative study of tourist attractivity for two cities, Brasov and Sibiu, located in Southern Transylvania, Romania. For the attractivity assessment, a combined approach was tested, using a digital, online tool (Google Trends) and a classical method (qualitative research). The results were consistent, outlining that these cities are both highly ranked by tourists, but Brasov records a constant advance. This was explained, by the subjects of the qualitative analysis, as related to differences in the natural potential (mainly climate and vegetation peculiarities). By analysing the time series of monthly Google searches (for the period January 2004- August 2020), it is clearly observable the higher interest for Brasov for almost all this period and a noteworthy exception, in 2007-2008 (in 2007, Sibiu was European Capital of Culture). Such events prove their importance in increasing tourist appeal, but the effect is limited in time, thus requiring a certain periodicity and for their optimised time planning, the Google Trends could offer very useful information.