This paper focuses on volunteer tourism as a sustainable form of tourism relating to the volunteer service at a tourism destination and specific tourism activities. The aim of the paper is to explore volunteer tourism in Slovakia with examples of organized events, especially to search exactly how event's organizers support the development of domestic and inbound volunteer tourism in Slovakia. This paper is based on a sociological survey. We addressed 653 heterogeneous event's organizers in Slovakia. 18% of them participated in the questionnaire survey. The collected data were processed by selected mathematical and statistical methods in SPSS statistics program. As such, we found most events organizers team up with volunteers. Only half of the organizers cooperate with local volunteers, while the second half also support the development of volunteer tourism engaging in voluntourism. In the case of attractive events, the engagement of voluntourists could be more effective. The current situation has resulted from missing information about the management of volunteers but it could be improved through an e-manual for event organizers providing an outline guide for volunteer management.

Volunteer tourism is one of the fastest growing types of alternative travel, highlighting the need for sustainability. It has been studied in a number of researches that focus almost exclusively on the demand for certain projects in outbound tourism. With the aim of a more comprehensive view of the issue, this paper examines and compare the current state of demand for domestic and outgoing volunteer tourism within Slovakia. It is based on a quantitative survey conducted on a sample of 573 respondents who represent a representative picture of the population of Slovakia older than 15 years in terms of age and gender. It turns out that between 18 and 25% of the Slovak population participated in domestic volunteer tourism between 2013 and 2018 (in average 3-4% a year). Outbound volunteer tourism was 4 to 8% (approximately 1% a year). In both cases, potential demand clearly exceeds effective demand. As individuals grow older, participation in volunteer tourism decrease slightly, while participation in the home country is positively influenced by higher education while participation abroad is dependent on the individual's economic status. Participation in domestic volunteer tourism is largely influenced by volunteer-specific motives, this differs from outbound tourism, where tourist specific motives prevail. In the home country. Volunteers sometimes do not realize that they are involved in tourism; the altruistic motive of helping others is paramount. Important information about national volunteer tourism of Slovak residents is obtained mostly from direct sources. Time is the most decisive obstacle to people's participation in volunteer tourism. Comparing the demand of Slovak citizens for domestic and outgoing volunteer tourism shows the possibilities of its further development.* This research was supported by the VEGA project no. V-18-101-07-101312: Abandoned Slovakia: Effective solutions to the creative reuse of abandoned properties in non-urban areas.

The presented paper deals with the regionalization of the electoral support of the Czech Pirate Party (Pirates) in regional elections using methods and techniques of spatial data analysis. The aim is to answer the question whether the territorial distribution of Pirate electoral support allows this party to participate in governance at the regional level and thus influence the form of regional policy in individual regions. The results of the analysis show that the spatial distribution of Pirates’ electoral support in regional elections differed quite significantly not only from the pattern found in the elections to the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Parliament and elections to the European Parliament, but also between individual regional elections. This suggests the current lack of anchorage of Pirates’ electoral support in regional politics, but at the same time, it may have its origins in the second-order character of regional elections and the candidacy of many local and regional entities in regional elections. On the other hand, the results of the regional elections in 2020 meant that the Pirates received seats in all regional councils, but especially in nine of the thirteen regions they joined the regional government (similarly to two years earlier when they joined government of capital city of Prague), gaining the opportunity to influence, with regard to its priorities, the form of regional governance in most Czech regions.

The number of people with disabilities in the world is growing every year. When traveling, they encounter various barriers. The article focuses on Slovakia, a country in which accessible tourism has not yet been examined. It is the result of extensive research carried out in the years 2016 to 2020. The scientific goal of the article is to examine the tourism demand and the degree of adjustment of the tourism supply for visitors with physical disabilities in Slovakia and to find out the connection between the accessibility of the tourism facilities and the destinations attendance. Article emphasizes the need to improve the country's accessibility in tourism for visitors with disabilities. Research is based on the theoretical research methods, exploratory statistics, and correlation analysis to evaluate the accessibility of the supply in all self-governing regions in Slovakia. It analyzes the demand of the visitors with disabilities based on the results of a qualitative survey carried out by the method of sociological questioning using the standardized interview technique with the representatives of associations for people with disabilities (19). The results of the research show that people with disabilities want to travel and urge the lack of accessibility of tourism attractions and facilities and on the various types of barriers. The research sample consists of 11,281 tourism supply facilities in Slovakia. The results of the research points to an insufficient rate of accessibility of the country (19.7%) * This research was supported by the grant project VEGA 1/0368/20 -Sharing economy -an opportunity for sustainable and competitive development of tourism in destinations in Slovakia.

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Mystery shopping can be characterized as a marketing method used for anonymous and objective evaluation of the quality of provided services. The method helps the owner of the company, where the mystery shopping is applied, to gain better images of processes in the company, information about employee behavior towards customers, quality of provided services, environment, atmosphere, etc. It is realized by mystery shoppers who give the owner the information about used services gained by secret purchases. The aim of the paper is to examine the use of the mystery shopping method as a tool for evaluating the sales process in hospitality facilities. We research the use of mystery shopping from two points of view. On one hand, based on the structured interviews with managers of mystery shopping agencies and, on the other hand, based on structured interviews with managers of hospitality facilities that use mystery shopping method. All researched companies agreed on the statement that mystery shopping is very good primary impulse for changes in the company but ction devoted work of the management and all its employees is necessary.

The new programming period 2021 – 2017 brings a new philosophy of integration - in the emergence of integrated territorial strategies (ITS) and their financing through integrated territorial investments (ITI). The aim of the paper is, based on the above reasons, to evaluate the project activities of the microregion Termál considering the implemented projects in the programming periods 2007 – 2013 and 2014 – 2020 (ex-post evaluation) as well as the readiness of the area for financial resources in the programming period 2021 – 2027 (ex-ante evaluation). In terms of methodology, we used the comparative analysis of various information sources (mainly Programs of economic development and social development of municipalities, microregion Termál and databases of the Department of Strategic Activities of the Municipality of Nitra Region) and standard statistical and cartographic methods leading to data processing and visualization. The results provide information on the diversification of obtained and expected funds at individual municipalities and the whole territory. While in both previous programming periods, the focus was mainly on building social and technical infrastructure. At the beginning of the new programming period, expectations mainly focused on increasing territorial competitiveness by supporting industries using local resources and sustainable smart energy communities.

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