Tourism transitions, changes, and the creation of new spaces and places in Central-Eastern Europe

Abstract

This paper outlines the general context of tourism, and the changes it underwent, in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) countries post-1990. The role of European Union enlargement is also discussed, allowing for an overall highlighting of the outcomes for tourism of the CEE countries’ political, administrative and institutional transformations. In essence, the development of transport systems and infrastructure have combined with the changing socio-economic conditions people experience to impact economically, socially and culturally – expanding the opportunities where tourism is concerned, as well as competition between countries and regions when it comes to attracting both tourists as such and investors. More specifically, the rapid privatisation of state-owned assets ensured a major impact in changing and developing tourism in the CEE, with the communist/post-communist structural changes in general proving a crucial catalyst underpinning most of the changes noted. This paper further serves the function of concluding contributions making up this special issue, and thus seeks to outline new future directions by which tourism in the CEE countries can be researched from the perspective of human geography.

Tourist Clusters as a Factor in Activating Cross-Border Spatial Development

“…The cluster's threat hierarchy includes the triad: "cluster collapse -internal cluster competition -leakage of business ideas" and is acknowledged by a broad group of participants (96%, 94% and 89%, respectively). Accumulated experience related to the functioning of clusters shows that participants mainly note positive effects in the field of advertising and marketing promotion of a tourist product (91%), increase in tourist flows (73%), better access to external financing sources (50%), and increased regional development (40%) (Borkowska-Niszczota, 2015). A smaller number of cluster members note positive effects in terms of information exchange within the cluster (16%) and the possibility of introducing innovations (12%).…”

Natural heritage as a resource for tourism development in the Polish Carpathians

“…It functions in places that are distant from one another and characterised by seasonality and a cyclical nature. The constant change would seem to be a feature of most tourist destinations, not least as the creation and development of spaces for tourism are seen to reflect wider political, economic and social processes often driven non-locally, if manifesting themselves very locally indeed (Więckowski and Saarinen 2019).…”

“…Sometimes this utilisation has proceeded at the expense of the ecological or socio-cultural environment, with this urgently calling for the achievement of sustainability in the further future. More generally, a need has arisen for a discussion and critical evaluation of governance, policy, planning, marketing, human mobilities and socio-economic dimensions as all linking up with the growing tourism industry, inter alia in the CEECs (Więckowski and Saarinen 2019). These kinds of problems are related to the mountainous tourist areas where nature plays a crucial role as a resource for development.…”

Zmiany w ruchu turystycznym w wybranych miastach dziedzictwa kulturowego państw Grupy Wyszehradzkiej (V4)

“…Europa to nadal jeden z najważniejszych regionów recepcji turystycznej na świecie. W ostatnich dekadach Europa Środkowo-Wschodnia stała się popularnym kierunkiem turystycznym w Europie, zwłaszcza kraje dawnego bloku komunistycznego (Ibrahimova, 2012;Więckowski, Saarinen, 2019). W 2010 roku udział Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej w międzynarodowym ruchu turystycznym wynosił 5,7%, a w 2018 roku wzrósł do 10,1% (141,4 mln turystów) (UNWTO, 2019).…”

“…Migracja ekonomiczna mieszkańców Grupy V4 do UE wpłynęła na wzrost turystyki związanej z wizytą u krewnych i znajomych. Ponadto miasta te oferują atrakcyjną i stosunkowo tanią ofertę turystyczną (Widawski, Wyszkowski, 2012;Tracz, Bajgier-Kowalska, Wójtowicz, 2019;Więckowski, Saarinen, 2019). Podsumowanie W świetle przeprowadzonych badań można wysunąć kilka wniosków.…”