Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
EU accession might partly help sustain this
high rate.
One change in Slovenian tourism was
recognized in the structure of foreign tourists in
2004. As we can see in Table 7.5, the ten fastest
growing markets in 2004 were members of
the EU (like Great Britain, Italy, France, The
Netherlands, Ireland, and Spain) and some other
non-European countries (like the USA and
Australia). We could speculate that the aware-
ness of Slovenia as a tourism destination
has increased amongst European Union inhabi-
tants. Further, by gaining the status of an
EU member country Slovenia is also winning
greater recognition in international markets. At
the same time, Slovenia's accession to the EU
could also be a signal of the more stable and
improved security conditions in Slovenia. In
the last group of tourists we can mainly stress
American tourists.
The increasing price competition in the
tourism market has already produced a
remarkable effect on transport price policy. An
obvious example influencing tourism develop-
ment is the growing number of British tourists
in Slovenia. The arrival of the low-cost carrier
EasyJet at the end of April 2004 with its first
route London-Ljubljana has boosted the
numbers of Britons coming to Slovenia. The
number of Britons has increased not only
because of the new EasyJet line, but also due
to the reduced flight ticket prices offered by the
national airline Adria Airways along this route.
A similar situation may be expected when
other new lines are opened. In 2004 alone,
EasyJet opened several lines between Slovenia
and other EU members.
Although the EU-related free movement
across borders has been suspected as an impor-
tant step for the development of tourism, so far
this has not seen any major changes. On the
contrary, the new visa requirements discourage
non-EU visitors from visiting Slovenia. A sharp
drop in demand in 2004 compared to 2003 was
recognized for tourists from the Russian market
(SORS, 2005).
Developing the Tourism Destination
Brand 'Slovenia'
Despite earlier scepticism about transferring
the brand concept to the destination area
(O
'
Shaughnessy and O
'
Shaughnessy, 2000),
branding has continued to attract interest in the
destination area in the last few years (Anholt,
2000, 2002, 2003; Kotler and Gertner, 2002;
Olins, 2002). In this categorization, destinations
can be evaluated from different perspectives,
mostly as tourism destinations (Gnoth, 1998,
2002; Curtis, 2001; Cai, 2002; Hall, 2002a,
2002b; Morgan and Pritchard, 2002; Morgan,
Pritchard and Piggot, 2002; Morgan, Pritchard
and Pride, 2002; Pride, 2002) or destinations
that aim to attract foreign direct investment
(Papadopoulus and Heslop, 2002).
Destinations as brands can enhance their
own brand value (Ahholt, 2000). In order to
enhance the value of the destination brand two
main concepts should be considered. The first
Table 7.5.
Slovenia: most important and fastest growing markets by number of overnight stays, 2004.
Top ten markets
Overnight stays
Ten fastest growing markets
Overnight stays
Italy
786,130
Great Britain
64,789
Germany
771,654
Italy
56,949
Austria
691,313
France
29,373
Great Britain
266,970
USA
23,020
Croatia
260,782
Netherlands
19,819
Netherlands
215,175
Ireland
11,248
France
105,264
Serbia and Montenegro
9,406
Hungary
105,217
Other non-European countries
8,276
Belgium
91,186
Spain
7,538
USA
90,749
Australia
6,590
Source:
SORS, 2005.
