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This paper aims to analyse the nexus between tourism activities, including tourists’ circulation, accommodation or entertainment, and environmental degradation. Consequently, the conceptual framework captures the complexity of the nexus between tourism and the environment, given that tourism activities can be performed by tourists or for tourists and that tourism depends on the environmental quality, and, consequently, we highlight the impact of tourism activities on biodiversity loss through the pollution effects that they generate, i.e., air pollution, water pollution, or noise pollution, as well as their contribution to waste increase or to the depletion of natural resources. To achieve this goal, we apply structural equation modelling based on partial least squares analysis (PLS). The results based on tourists’ opinions highlight the existence of a direct and significant nexus between tourists’ activities and environmental degradation, with many implications and consequences.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused disruption to activities in many fields, including education and lifestyle. Major changes have taken place in the education system, where specific activities migrated suddenly from onsite to online. As a result, this period has witnessed an increased interest in impact studies that analyse the perceptions of the actors involved in the educational process. Based on the survey data (N = 665), the perceptions of the students in Romanian universities with regard to the effects of online education during the pandemic on their wellbeing were analysed. The empirical apparatus—SEM analysis—reached the following conclusions: the students’ wellbeing was increased under the traditional education system, the economic crisis has caused concern, and a decrease in their wellbeing, their contamination fear is moderate to low, and does not influence their wellbeing, they have been discouraged in terms of their personal development during the pandemic, and their wellbeing has suffered as a result, the role of institutions is extremely important, given that the students’ ability to study online depends on the universities’ efficiency in implementing the online system.

This study investigates safety and security from the perspective of Romanian tourists by assessing the level of importance that tourists give to safety and security depending on the level of classification of the services they experienced and the generation to which they belong. We used a quantitative research method in the form of a questionnaire and analysed eight dimensions of safety and security: detectors, emergency preparedness, medical preparedness, staff security, guestroom security, pool and beach security, hotel access control, and cyber security. We identified the differences between tourists&rsquo, perception of safety and security depending on the level of classification of accommodation services and on generation.

The paper aims to analyze the entrepreneurial intention determinants in nine post-transition economies of European member states. To achieve our stated goal, the study focused on the influence of fear of failure and networking on individuals&rsquo, inclination towards entrepreneurship. Additionally, gender, income, education, and work status were also considered control variables. The data were collected using the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) database. We included responses collected from nine former transition economies, giving us a total of 13,494 observations, for 2015. Logistic regression models were employed to measure the influence of perceptions on the propenisty of individuals to create a new venture. The results indicated that fear of failure is significantly and negatively correlated with entrepreneurial intentions for all groups of countries. The results also indicated that people who have entrepreneurs in the family have a higher propensity for entrepreneurial intentions than people who do not have family members with such a status.

Economic and social progress is directly and closely related to energy consumption. In the latest decades, there is a higher need to reduce energy consumption from conventional sources, replacing it with energy obtained from unconventional sources. The environmental concern is one of the objectives of the European economic policy, with a particular focus on renewable energy consumption and energy efficiency in order to lower the environmental impact. In this context, we analyzed energy consumption per capita and renewable energy consumption per capita in the EU with the help of parametric methods, using the β-convergence model, and semiparametric methods, using the σ-convergence model. In this research we proposed to study six analysis models of the period 1960–2015, based on the availability of data. We concluded that the EU states went through a convergence process in a slow pace of energy consumption per capita and renewable energy per capita, showing a convergence pattern. The results of the study show that there is a relationship between the convergence of conventional energy consumption and the convergence of renewable (unconventional) energy consumption. The study covers a long period of time in which EU member states had different economic and social systems, implicitly different degrees and rates of development. In addition, the interest in renewable energy is relatively recent in the whole world. There is a possibility that future research will provide more optimistic results, in terms of accelerating the convergence rate, as appropriate measures and technologies are applied to renewable energy production in all EU member states.

Tourism is an extremely complex phenomenon marked by major factors like the terrorist attacks and the refugees’ invasion (the recent waves of migrants). This paper tests by empirical analyses if in the European Union countries, the gross domestic product in tourism reacts to the situations of crisis caused by the terrorist attacks and by the waves of refugees. The techniques used are s and s convergence tests, combined with the deterministic sensitivity analysis. The sample consists of 26 European Union countries studied between 2000-2015 and 2000-2016, according to the available data. The results prove the prevalence of divergence, explicable by the existence of some countries, in the structure of the groups analysed, which have different contributions of gross domestic product in tourism to their overall economic growth. At the same time, a higher reaction of gross domestic product in tourism per capita is identified under the influence of the number of terrorism victims, compared to the incidence of the variation of the number of refugees. However, it cannot be stated that the two phenome n a lead to the general tendency of decrease of the gross domestic product in tourism per capita. On the contrary, there are occasional regressions of this indicator, which can be correlated only subsidiary with the crisis situations caused by terrorism and the waves of refugees.