Reflections over the past and present research and higher education on tourism in Czechoslovakia and Slovakia

Abstract

In Slovakia (and former Czechoslovakia), tourism was the subject of a systematic research of more research institutions between 1960 and 1990. These were institutions managed by government departments. Tourism research in Czechoslovakia started in the academic institutions in 1964, when the Department of Tourism and Hospitality was established at Bratislava School of Economics in Slovakia. This department moved to Banská Bystrica in 1973 and became the keystone of the newly established Faculty of Economics of Services and Tourism of the Bratislava School of Economics. After 1990, tourism research in Slovakia was concentrated in the academic institutions, and the number of higher education institutions offering studies in tourism and hotel management increased to seven. Research institutions changed their character, or disappeared in the privatization process. This paper outlines the specialization of tourism research in particular decades from the 1960s in the former Czechoslovakia, and after the splitting of the country into two separate states; it characterizes tourism research and education in Slovakia. Many results have been achieved thanks to the personal commitment and enthusiasm of scientists and teachers, as well as due to the conditions created for scientific research and tourism development by the state. Current tourism research is compared with the past fragmented and uncoordinated situation, which led to the wasting of human and financial resources.