Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
marked - there were still 26.3m foreign visitors
in 2004 (ŠÚSR, 1991-2005). Arguably, this
reflected lower levels of initial 'curiosity tourism'
and a weak tourism image, as well as the late
onset of economic reforms.
There were also marked changes in out-
bound tourism. In Slovakia, there are no reli-
able data for outbound travel prior to 1989.
However, 9.6m Slovaks went abroad in 1991,
rising to a peak of 32.7m in 1998, before falling
to 21.2m by 2004 (ŠÚSR, 1991-2005). The
decline in outbound travel, in part, reflected
decay in the 'novelty factor', and in the initial
exuberant 'curiosity tourism' which followed bor-
der liberalization; but it also reflected changes in
neighbours' economic systems. Pre-1989 bor-
ders were reconstituted more as gateways than
barriers, although they had different meanings
depending on the economic and social comple-
mentarities of national territories. In the early
stages of transition, the uneven pace of reform
and the divergence between economic systems
meant that the re-regulated borders provided
opportunities for border
arbitrage
(Altvater,
1998). This was manifested in various forms
of small-scale trading and shopping activities
taking advantage of differences in the price
and availability of goods in neighbouring eco-
nomic systems. However, economic reforms
subsequently eroded these differences as the
ECE economies converged around western
European models, particularly in the latter years
of transition prior to EU membership.
In the Communist period, the ECE coun-
tries were heavily dependent on tourist demand
from neighbouring countries. In Czechoslovakia
in 1989, for example, 83% of inbound flows
centred on just three countries: the German
Democratic Republic, Poland and Hungary (see
Hall, 1991 for comparisons with other Central
and East European countries). These three
countries were also the principal destinations for
outward tourist flows, and accounted for 59% of
outbound Czech and Slovak visitors. Surprisingly,
at least at first glance, this 'nearest-neighbour'
spatial pattern of tourist flows has changed very
little since 1989 in all the ECE countries. Rather,
there has been considerable stability, grounded
in geographical, economic and cultural condi-
tions. Most regions within Hungary, Poland, the
Czech and Slovak Republics are easily accessible
to each other and are pervaded by strong
economic and social-cultural networks. There
are formal and informal business relationships,
and cross-border familial and friendship ties that
generate international tourism amongst this
group of countries. In addition, the geographi-
cal location of these countries has long given
them a role in transit tourism (Williams and
Balá
y
, 2002a).
If major changes in volume of international
travel resulted from travel liberalization in the
early 1990s, has EU membership had any
impact on international travel to Slovakia? In
2004, there were some increases both in the
inbound and outbound travel volumes on each
of Slovakia's borders (Figs 8.4 and 8.5), but
they may have been caused by high economic
growth: Slovak GDP grew by 5.4% in that year.
Simplification of travel regulations with the
EU-members and increasing barriers in tourist
exchange with Ukraine also became important
for
Slovakia
after
its
accession
to
the
EU
(MVSR, 2004b).
The first of May, 2004 saw the single pass-
port control introduced at borders with Austria,
Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic. Iden-
tity cards were recognized as official travel doc-
uments, in addition to passports. This change
was little visible on the Czech and Hungarian
borders. Travel between Slovakia on the one
hand and Hungary and the Czech Republic on
the other was little restricted and the local
inhabitants, for example, enjoyed unhindered
travel under the small cross-border regime
before 2004. Simplification of travel regulation
was most noticeable on the Austrian border,
where the formerly long queues disappeared. It
was, however, the Polish border which accounted
(rather unexpectedly) for the most interesting
development. The 1996 Slovak-Polish agree-
ment enabled inhabitants of certain municipali-
ties in border areas to cross frontiers under the
small cross-border regime. They could, for
example, use a much larger number of border
crossing points than the rest of the population in
both countries.
From 1 May, 2004 Polish and Slovak
tourists (and other EU nationals) started to use
the full range of border crossings, regardless of
whether they were local inhabitants or not. Most
of this exchange was related to informal shop-
ping and business travel. This had not been
envisaged by the Slovak and Polish authorities,
