Elsevier

Tourism Management

Volume 22, Issue 2, April 2001, Pages 193-202
Tourism Management

Case study
Rural tourism in Roznava Okres: a Slovak case study

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0261-5177(00)00038-8Get rights and content

Abstract

Now that the novelty factor of visiting the former communist countries of Eastern and Central Europe is over, the focus must be on product quality, professional service and value for money if an internationally competitive tourism product is to emerge. The natural assets of the Slovak Republic point towards an unfulfilled potential for rural tourism. This paper critiques the results from a British Know How Fund three-year project to build the rural tourism offer for Roznava Okres, a declining mining area in the Slovak Republic. The four key activities were the creation of a three-year marketing plan, the establishment of a Tourist Information Centre, the formation of a local tourism association, and the delivery of training courses. The main international target markets were identified as Hungary and the Czech Republic, with Germany, Poland and the Netherlands forming secondary segments. Results from the TIC tracking studies indicated that France, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands could merit future attention for market development. Lessons from this project could be applied to rural tourism areas in other former Eastern bloc countries.

Introduction

Tourism is becoming increasingly important to the emerging market economies of Eastern and Central Europe. This paper presents the results from a three-year project in the Slovak Republic to aid the development of rural tourism in Roznava Okres, or North Gemer, in the east of the country. The paper provides

  • an outline of tourism in Slovakia, its organisation and recent national government initiatives to accelerate its development,

  • an investigation of the Roznava Okres rural tourism case study and its implications for the design and management of future rural tourism projects in Eastern and Central European countries.

Compared to some other ex-communist countries of Eastern and Central Europe (for example, Slovenia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, or Poland) Slovakia has, to date, lagged behind in recognising the importance of tourism development.

Section snippets

An overview of tourism in Slovakia

In little over a decade, Slovakia has experienced the demise of communism in the Velvet Revolution of 1989 and the benign partition of the former state of Czechoslovakia in January 1993. A landlocked country, Slovakia shares borders with Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine and Hungary, and has a population of 5,360,000, with 452,000 living in the capital city of Bratislava (OECD, 1996).

Since the division of Czechoslovakia into two independent states, it is the Czech Republic, driven by

The current organisation of tourism in Slovakia

The dominance of Vladimar Meciar in Slovakian politics was broken in September 1998 when his party, the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia, was beaten in the election by the coalition of opposition parties. The new Prime Minister, Mikulas Dzurinda, was joined by a new pro-Western president in May 1999. A largely ceremonial position, Rudolf Schuster was returned as President by popular vote. The previous Meciar/Kovac era had been marred by discord between the two incumbents and by a somewhat

The rural tourism case study: Roznava Okres

Gemer is an historic region of Eastern Slovakia, partially bounded by the Slovak–Hungarian border. The project focused on Roznava Okres, a single administrative area, essentially the North Gemer region. Covering land of approximately 1620 km2 and a rural population of 86,000, the only sizeable town is Roznava, boasting around 20,000 people (ADAS Consulting Ltd, 1996a). Fig. 1 outlines the project area, showing the primary tourism attractions and features. The economy of this rural region was

Implications of the case study for the development of rural tourism in Slovakia and Eastern Europe

The Roznava Okres rural tourism project has produced visible results, both direct and indirect, over the three years including

  • an active local rural tourism association,

  • a nationally recognised Tourist Information Centre for the area,

  • the provision of technology to aid service provision,

  • the emergence of Roznava town as a tourism service centre,

  • the rejuvenation of rural crafts in the area, for example, sheep bell production,

  • support for existing tourism businesses and the initiation of new

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the British Know How Fund for permission to use the reports and material generated by the Roznava Okres Rural Tourism Project. We would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments on the case study.

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