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Tourism belongs to the industries with significant energy consumption. Visitors as well as hotel managers have, however, a positive attitude towards the responsible use of energy resources. The level of research on visitors' preferences of using different types of renewable energy is low, unlike findings on factual characteristics of conventional and renewable energies. That is why our aim was to assess visitors' preferences of environmentally friendly energy sources in hotels. Preferences of six types of renewable energy-"green" tariff energy, solar panels on the rooftops, solar panels on the ground, heat pumps, AD, wind turbine, were measured at four tourist destinations in the Czech Republic. The positive attitude of tourists towards the selected types of energy sources was confirmed. The highest preferences were found for solar panels installed on the rooftops. A typology of preferences was revealed by cluster analysis and differences between clusters were tested for independent variables. Clusters of visitors with a high and low interest in any type of renewable energy were identified as well as a cluster of visitors with interest in all types apart from solar panels installed on the ground-the visitor's origin was found as the main differentiation factor.

A basis for the identification of potential tourist development areas was defined as a combined use of the model of area load by visitors, the territorially-located database of tourist attractions, and the perception of their attractiveness by visitors. A distinctive inequality was identified in the area load and the distribution of tourist attractions. The areas of development were determined on the basis of a difference between the relative attendance and the relative attractiveness of the partial territorial units of a regular hexagonal network, sized approximately 3 km2, with a concurrent requirement of above-average total attractiveness

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Purpose This paper aims to assess how a hotel geographical location in different parts of Central and Eastern Europe influences the complexity of perception of pro-environmental behavior. Design/methodology/approach To find out, whether hotel location in a specific country influences the complexity of environmental practices, this study used two closely connected multivariate statistical techniques analyzing gradients: principal components analysis and partial redundancy analysis. The research comprises data collection from seven countries in Central and Eastern Europe. In all, 25 randomly selected hotels (based on star rating) from various countries were approached to complete a questionnaire. Environmental practices were studied based on motivations, perception of barriers, perception of support from different levels of public sector, will of managers to promote pro-environmental measures based on sufficient funding, perception of legislation and perception of various other important factors. Findings The study reveals significant differences between hotels in Central Europe and Eastern Europe in the perception of the complexity in implementation of the environmental practices by hotel managers. The character of the present study, however, needs to address the identification of particular aspects that are relevant to the geographical differences among the studied countries. Research limitations/implications Research was limited to a selection of Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. There is still probability that managers in hotels from Poland and Croatia could possess different preferences. Other limitation of this study is that only special part of hotels were asked – hotels certified by star grading, out of our scope remained other hotels. It is also known that important factor is precise location of hotel within country – hotels in established tourism destination behave other way that those outside recreational areas. These factors deserve further study within this topic. There are many aspects of sustainability and environmental protection regarding hotel industry. As we have found in our principal correspondence analysis, different environmental measures were different location in biplot – some were affected by country, the other by star grading and affiliation to hotel chain. The complexity deserves to be studied in depth. Practical implications The importance lies first in the identification of the aspects that are governed by geographical differences among the countries studied. These aspects are the initiatives and support from the government and the local governments, which counteract the perception that there is a lack of financial resources and the return on investments is slow. So, based on the data, which included information from various types of hotels from seven CEE countries, the activities of national and local authorities were identified to be the main differentiating variable. The support of the environment-friendly conduct of business in the hotel industry is appreciated by hotel managers from Central Europe. On the other hand, hotel managers from Eastern Europe do not feel any significant support from either national or other public institutions. The second factor of differentiation is represented by the perception of the lack of funds. Hotel managers from Eastern Europe feel strongly about funds limitation. The coherence of both those factors is obvious in the results, as they show the same direction but opposite orientation. It has already been discussed above. When looking at the results, the authors find the perception of availability of funds to be a fundamental difference between hotel management in Central Europe and in Eastern Europe. The lack of funds is perceived more intensively in Eastern Europe than in Central Europe, particularly because of a stronger awareness of direct or indirect support for such activities by national and other public institutions in Central Europe. Social implications The differentiation of the aspects mentioned above comes from the social and culture policies, company policies and business cultures between these two sub-realms. Pro-environmental actions are apparently promoted less publicly in Eastern European countries than in Central European countries. The reaction to the trend for demand of greener hotels is stronger in the West, and its hotels are more likely to have legislation requirements and public support as an incentive to adopt pro-environmental measures in their business operations. Originality/value The study is based on data obtained from seven countries. The results revealed a problem of the macro-environmental influence on hotels’ potential to implement environmentally sustainable approaches and procedures throughout the industry.

The significance of the vulnerability of nature-rich areas with high development potential for tourism was studied using three types of data: 1) spatial distribution of tourist attractions, 2) the appeal level of these attractions, and 3) the number of visitors. The Bohemian Forest and South Bohemia were chosen as study areas. Nine types of landscape spatial appeal were identified in the study area. Two most important types were defined based on their appeal where there are rare relic features in the natural environment dominated by the presence of peat bogs and natural habitats with scrub undergrowth or virgin forests. These types were also found in the areas with the greatest potential for tourism development. However, these areas are also the most important from the point of view of nature conservation and landscape protection in Central Europe.

NAVRÁTIL, J., PÍCHA, K., NAVRÁTILOVÁ, J., ŠVEC, R., DOLEŽALOVÁ, H.: Image as the elements of attractiveness of the destinations of the nature-oriented tourism. Acta univ. agric. et silvic. Mendel. Brun., 2012, LX, No. 4, pp. 281-288 The aim of this paper is to assess the relations between partial components of image of various touristically attractive locations. This research is focused on specifi c locations in vulnerable areas since the sustainable way of the tourism development concerns them in the highest manner and the touristic pressure on these locations permanently increases. The paper makes eff ort to extend the usual and nearly traditional understanding of the image in the tourism, which is usually related only to the problems of brand and/or the tourist destination. This is done through a survey realized at 26 selected locations with the aim to obtain 64 completely fi lled-in questionnaires in each location. Particular statements of respondents concerning the image of the visited location were summarized to the 20 categories. A multidimensional analysis was used to reveal the relations in partial answers. Authors have identifi ed an important number of elements of image of the tourist attractions. By means of the analysis authors have identifi ed diff erences between historic attractions and nature attractions. However, authors have identifi ed simultaneously both the natural type of the image of the destination and the culture-historical type of image of the destination in all studied locations. image, destination, nature-oriented tourism, PCA analysis

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