Integration of Archaeological Sites from the Romanian Region of Dobrogea into Cross-Border Cultural Routes with Bulgaria in the Context of Accession to the Schengen Area

In the current geopolitical context in which the Schengen Area has expanded to Romania and Bulgaria, our study proposes new directions for the development of tourism near the border between the two countries, in the Dobrogea region. Thus, by using Geographic Information Systems tools, we will outline several thematic cross-border tourist routes between the two countries. Characterized by strong dynamics, tourism is one of the main economic activities in the European Union. This economic sector has had a positive evolution in recent decades, statistics that come as a result of the reduction of obstacles to the movement of tourists between member states. European integration has driven the rapid development of cross-border tourism. The full accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen Area in January 2025 may be a good opportunity for certain forms of tourism that bring common elements between the two states to be developed simultaneously by creating tourist routes that unite tourist resources from the two neighboring states. Geospatial technologies provide an overview of the spatial relationships between tourist attractions, helping us to extract new information on the directions of regional economic development. The diversity of archaeological resources in a region where coastal tourism is the main form of tourist activity, constitute important advantages from which our analysis starts. The results obtained indicate that the road distances between the main archaeological sites in Dobrogea have been considerably reduced, new tourist routes being able to sustainably capitalize on the archaeological resources of Dobrogea as a result of accession to the Schengen Area