This research focuses on a sub-sector of wildlife watching tourism which relies on non-captive non-consumptive usage of large carnivores as its main attraction. This form of wildlife watching tourism attracts visitors to experience the encounters with species in their natural habitats. The changing number of large carnivore populations in Europe has been one of the most controversial topics throughout the decades due to its conflicting character with human populations. Romania is a dominating country in Europe holding the biggest large carnivore population. After the implementation of successful management programs, Brasov is now the county which holds the biggest number of large carnivore watching tourism attractions.
This research aims to provide a better understanding about the opinions of stakeholders on the current opportunities and pitfalls of large carnivore watching tourism in Romania and to discover the potential ways of tourism contribution to large carnivore conservation. For this purpose, six semi-structured in-depth interviews were performed with various stakeholders. The results suggest that currently, Romania is in a slow phase of large carnivore watching tourism development mainly due to the lack of promotion and local recognition of large carnivore value. Even though a shift from consumptive towards non-consumptive tourism can be noted, in the creation of observatories and revolutionary usage of hunting hides for wildlife watching tourism, the need for development programs to improve coexistence, increase financial gains and accelerate the tourism development was identified.