No abstract

Generation Z has been online since the beginning, the online space is an integral part of their lives and personalities, and they make up about 30% of the world’s population. It is claimed that this youngest cohort is already the most numerous generation on the Earth. The most important holiday parameters for them are price and location. They want to explore new places and be active while abroad. The study examines the impact of safety concerns on changes in travel behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. We focused on members of Generation Z who study the Tourism and the Recreation and Leisure Studies programs, so these students have a positive attitude towards traveling. Data were collected via internal university systems at two periods of time connected to different stages of the pandemic outbreak. The sample was chosen randomly. The sample of Period 1 (n = 150) was composed in 2020, after the lifting of restrictions at the end of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Czech Republic. The sample of Period 2 (n = 126) was collected one year later, after the lifting of restrictions at the end of the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Czech Republic. Correspondence analysis was used for better understanding and representation. This is a unique research study on Generation Z in the Czech Republic and Central Europe. As a result of the contemporary demographic changes in the world, this generation will shape future travel demand. Hence, understanding these youngest travelers will be key to predicting how tourism trends could evolve in the next few years and how these could influence worldwide tourism. The respondents thought they would not change their travel habits in the next five years because of the pandemic. When Periods 1 and 2 were compared after one year of the pandemic, the respondents preferred individual trips to group trips and individual accommodation to group accommodation facilities. On the other hand, our findings revealed a significant increase in safety concerns related to changes in travel behavior when the above-mentioned periods were compared. The research contributes to mapping young people’s attitudes towards travel in the constrained and changing conditions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings help analyze the consumer behavior of the target group.

Sustainability has long been a buzzword and is also currently one of the major priorities of tourism all over the world. In many places, hotels function as a driving force for socio-economic development, serving as employers for the local population, but also providing space for meetings, conferences, private/family events, and ceremonies. Unfortunately, the hotel industry is also considered an industry characterized by the consumption of considerable amounts of resources. These include mainly energy and water consumption, but also waste production. Emphasis is placed on the role of the communication between the various players involved in the operation of hotels. The article deals with applying elements of green management in a selected hotel in Czechia. It analyses the implementation of green management elements and principles of sustainable development in accommodation services. The primary data were conducted from April 2017 to March 2018 and we used structured and semi-structured interviews with the TOP management of the hotel and by author observation. We used the methods of scientific work, i.e., the analysis, mathematical, and statistical methods. As part of economic and social activities, cooperation with suppliers in the close surroundings of the hotel and the selection of local employees work well. Room for improvement has been observed, e.g., in supporting local infrastructure or promoting environmentally friendly types of transport.

This research article focuses on the ecological operation of accommodation services in Bulgaria. The aim of this article is to evaluate the application of various green management elements and measures in selected hotels in Bulgaria, namely in the cities of Sofia and Varna. The research will pay attention to the implementation of individual green measures in hotel operations as well as a comparison between hotel categories and hotels in the two cities in terms of the application of green measures. Running an environmentally friendly hotel can have several positive effects. It significantly manifests itself in the area of marketing – it creates an image, has an effect on current and prospective guests, and defines the positioning of the hotel. It also impacts the economic and operational aspects, with ecological elements having the potential to reduce hotels’ operating costs. The societal impact of running hotels in an environmentally friendly fashion lies in resource conservation and ensuring environmental sustainability. This research was carried out using mixed research methods, combining semi-structured interviews with hotel management staff in Varna (n = 90) and Sofia (n = 96). The total sample of participating hotels represented 81.6% of hotels in the two cities. The interviews were complemented with a questionnaire survey, which focused on the application of environmentally friendly solutions in hotel operations. In the data analysis stage, the methods of correspondence analysis, the ANOVA test and the Kruskal-Wallis test were used. The results suggest that the higher the hotel category, the stronger the trend to use environmentally friendly methods in running hotels. The research also found that there were differences between the level at which green measures were applied in hotel operations in the two cities. The research results are applicable in practice by national professional associations that support resource conservation and thus affect the entire hospitality industry.

Efforts to minimize negative effects on the environment are manifested in the hospitality sector in the form of integrated application of elements of sustainable business, circular economy, bioeconomy, and environmental management. Those who run accommodation facilities are becoming environmentally aware and feel that they should be more involved in sustainable practices and thus contribute to improving the environment both locally and nationally. The main goal of this study is to identify and evaluate the application of selected elements and measures of sustainable business, circular economy, bioeconomy, and environmental management in guesthouses of the Czech Republic. A questionnaire survey (n1 = 343) was carried out together with a qualitative focus group method (n2 = 5); the data evaluation was carried out using advanced statistical methods (Tukey HSD test, Kruskal-Wallis test, correspondence analysis). The results showed that a higher classification in the guesthouse is associated with an increasing trend in the number of environmentally friendly operating methods used. Measures related to waste sorting containers (74%) and energy-saving and LED light bulbs (68%) showed the highest values. The results are useful for the practice of national professional associations that support the careful handling of resources and thereby influence the entire hospitality sector.

Increasing the socio-economic effects caused by the tourism development in the local population, they adopt some attitudes according to the impacts directly or indirectly perceived. However, some of this impact can be considered positive or negative, according to different perspectives. The issue of the resident-tourist relationship has been much-discussed recently. Therefore, many case studies are being conducted that address the impacts on both residents and tourists. The goal of this manuscript is to analyze the attitudes of local residents to the development of tourism in the urban monument zone Předhradí. Primary data were collected in a questionnaire survey for residents who have a permanent residence in a municipality of Předhradí in 2020. In our research, we tried to identify the significant negative impacts of tourism development. In the same way, we evaluate how the locals see positive effects on their quality of life conducted with tourism development. The research finds out that local respondents perceived some negative impacts to increase the economic perspective, as they referred to in the higher traffic load or increased noise. The pandemic crises are perceived as a game-changer in the tourism industry. For that reason, we suggest the primary considerations for future research not only with the academic perfective as for the practical point of view. The local population’s entrepreneurship attitudes must be one of the tools to assume the resilience toward the tourism development impacts.

Cilj ovog istraživanja je analizirati primjenu mjera zaštite okoliša u smještajnim objektima u jednom odabranom hotelskom lancu u Republici Češkoj. Primarno istraživanje provedeno je od veljače do travnja 2018. godine. Podaci su dobiveni pomoću upitnika, tj. strukturiranim intervjuima, koji se provodio putem elektroničke pošte i telefona. Znanstvena metodologija zasnivala se na uporabi metoda analize i generalizacije. Uzorak istraživanja sastojao se od 23 smještajna objekta koji su dobili najbolje ocjene u korištenju fluorescentnih lampi i LED žarulja (96%) te središnjih prekidača svjetala (77%), kao i zamjenjivanja posteljine i ručnika na zahtjev (68%). Na temelju rezultata istraživanja može se zaključiti da bi se u smještajne objekte odabranog lanca hotela trebalo uložiti više financijskih sredstava za zelene inicijative i upoznavanje zaposlenika i gostiju s ovom filozofijom.