Regional Tourism Policy in Slovakia
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EKONOMIE REGIONAL TOURISM POLICY IN SLOVAKIA Jana Kučerová, Tomáš Makovník Introduction development of tourism in regional destinations by means of activities and policies of self-go- The transition process of socio - economic vernment regions. We characterize sustainable development in Slovakia after 1989 has been tourism development as a development, which connected with necessary qualitative and struc- provides not only the satisfaction of current eco- tural changes. This process has caused the dec- nomical, social and aesthetical needs of tourists line of industries with low added value and has and residents, but also secures the satisfaction contributed to the growth of more perspective of the needs in the future. This development industries including tourism. Tourism is conside- secures identity, essential ecological processes, red to be one of the strategic issues of regional biological diversity and life supporting systems in development. Position of regions is strengthened destinations. It means sustainable development also due to membership of Slovakia in the EU. is concentrated on long - term objectives and is It is generally recognized, that effective regional realized step by step, is planned and well regula- policy is a precondition for regional cohesion by ted. According to this definition, the precondition means of development of perspective economic for sustainable tourism development is planning activities including tourism. The effective regional including carrying capacity analysis and the tourism policy as integral part of regional policy is essential output of planning is also well-defined the basis for achievement of synergy effects from regional tourism policy, which as a system formu- tourism development on regional development. lates objectives, instruments and stakeholders of The paper deals with the problem of absence tourism policy on the regional level. These issues of systematic regional tourism policy in Slovakia are presented in this article. and presents the results of the field research The regional tourism policy is important part of conducted on the sample of 604 respondents - the socio-economic policy in many EU countries. stakeholders in tourism development in Slovakia. The optimum utilization of tourism resources is 50 % of them were the representatives of public the basic objective of regional tourism policy. sector and 50 % representatives of private and It is the continuous process of discovering and NGO sectors. The questionnaire distributed by realization of activities aimed at increasing bene- e-mail was the main method of collecting data. fits for region and eliminating negative impact of tourism development on region. 1. Regional Tourism Policy in Slo- Regional tourism policy is based on the set of vakia preconditions. They include attractive tourism po- tential - supply, integrated marketing and manage- As more Slovakian and foreign tourism experts ment, correct and honest co-operation between stress (Chovan, J. 2000. p. 200; Gúčik, M., private and public sector, existing organizational 2004, p. 190; Kmeco, Ľ., 2002, p. 83; Kučerová, structure of tourism from national to regional and J., 1999, p. 56; Inskeep, E., 1991, p. 320) the local levels, regional information system and of absence of regional tourism policy is the main course also positive attitude of inhabitants to reason of uncoordinated and ineffective tourism tourism development. The regional tourism policy development in the country. They stress the fact, is system with interconnected subsystems - sub- that regional tourism policy is based on targeted system of objectives, instruments and incentives and program oriented co-ordination of incentives and stakeholders - organizations and entities and supporting instruments aimed at sustainable responsible for creation and implementation strana 6 1 / 2009 E + M EKONOMIE A MANAGEMENT EKONOMIE of regional tourism policy. The instruments of national, above regional and regional importance). regional tourism policy can be divided into two This document ought to be used as the basis for re- groups (Chovan, 2000, Maier, 1998, Tödtling, gional tourism development in Slovakia. However, it 1998, Wokoun, 2003). These are financial and has more shortcomings. If this document was the non-financial instruments. The local taxes and basis for sustainable tourism development in the recreational taxes are important financial instru- regions, it would have to define carrying capacity ments of regional tourism development in more as it is also stressed in Agenda 21 for tourism. If countries (Austria, Switzerland). Due to the fact this document was used as the marketing tool, the that Slovakia became the EU member state in names of the regions would not be well known not 2004, the EU structural funds are important fi- only to Slovakian tourists, but also mainly to foreign nancial instrument of regional tourism policy. The tourists. It is very hard to promote 21 regions in main non-financial instrument is regional tourism such a relatively small country as Slovakia. But marketing, training of local businesses and edu- the main problem of this development document cation of local inhabitants. is, that it does not define main stakeholders - en- The regional tourism policy in Slovakia has tities responsible for tourism development in these been influenced by changes in socio-economic regions as well as does not comprise the system development of Slovakia. The problems of tou- of financing and instruments, which can be used rism development on regional level have been up in tourism development in these 21 regions. As the to now solved mainly by means of physical and results of all these shortcomings, the document territorial planning. The basis of this approach is can be considered as a recommendation for future dated to the 60´s of the 20th century. The first creation of physical plans in particular regions and „Regionalization of tourism“ in previous Czecho- not as a basis for effective regional tourism policy. slovakia was approved in 1962 and updated in With the objective to analyze the regional tou- 1981. This updated document has been the basis rism policy in Slovakia we have conducted prima- for physical planning. Based on this document ry research aimed at the objectives, instruments 24 tourism regions were identified in Slovakia and stakeholders - entities of regional tourism and divided according to their importance into policy in Slovakia. 4 categories - international, national and regional importance and recreational regions with specific Research methodology and research me- purpose in tourism development (with very high thods quality of potential). This document defined also In the primary research we have tested four carrying capacity for particular tourism resorts hypotheses. The first one: Slovakia has up to now and was the basis for investment incentives no clear and systematic regional tourism policy in of previous regime. The names of the regions spite of the great tourism potential in 21 officially were based mainly on names of the main tourism recognized tourism regions. The second one: The attractions in the regions (the High Tatras, the partial objectives of tourism policy in Slovakia Low Tatras, the Small Fatra mountains, Piešťany should be aimed at the support of recreational - Trenčin spa region, etc.). tourism. The third one: We assume that the main The new Regionalization of tourism in Slovakia coordinator of regional tourism development was elaborated in 2003 with the objective to define in Slovakia should be special national tourism the borders of tourism regions according to new board, which doesn‘t exist so far in Slovakia. administrative division of Slovakia and to formulate The existing Slovak Tourism Agency has com- priority forms of tourism development in particular petences in the field of tourism marketing and is regions and sub-regions. In comparison with the not responsible for creation of tourism policy on document from 1981 there are more changes - 21 national and regional level. The fourth hypothesis tourism regions, the names of previous ones were was: We suppose, that the decreasing taxes and changed and mainly historical names of the regions social fees paid by businesses are main financial are implemented. The „old“ approach to the catego- instruments of regional tourism development. ries of the regions has been applied. The regions The questionnaire was the main research me- are divided according to their importance for tou- thod in primary data collection. The questionnaire rism development into 4 categories (international, consisted of 19 closed and opened questions so E + M EKONOMIE A MANAGEMENT 1 / 2009 strana 7 EKONOMIE Fig. 1: Tourism Forms Enabling Cohesion of Regions (%) Source: Own research that the respondents could express their own NGOs), including respondents such as Ministry opinions. The questionnaire has been distribu- of Economy of the Slovak Republic, self-gover- ted to professionals in tourism from public and ning regions, municipal offices etc. private sector. The sample in Slovakia was 604 The questionnaires were distributed by e-mail respondents (50 % representatives of public based on the created database of tourism organizati- and 50 % representatives of private sector and ons in private and public sectors. The return rate was Fig. 2: National Financial Instruments of Regional Tourism Policy (%) Source: Own research strana 8 1 / 2009 E + M EKONOMIE A MANAGEMENT EKONOMIE Fig. 3: Main Co-ordinator of Tourism Development