Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
a Central European Perspective
Peter Jordan
Introduction
Central and Eastern Europe in Europe's West
much more than a marginal phenomenon, not
even in Austria, so close to the new member
states.
The chapter first documents foreign tour-
ism development in Central Europe with a focus
on Austrian tourism relations with Central and
Eastern Europe and then discusses perspectives
of tourism development in Central and Eastern
Europe from the receiving as well as from the
generating angle.
The term 'Central and Eastern Europe'
comprises in this chapter not only the new
member states Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia,
Hungary and Slovenia, but also Croatia, not
only because Croatia is a part of Central Europe,
but also because it is the most important tourism
destination in the whole region besides Austria.
Since EU enlargement as of 1 May, 2004, Aus-
tria has shifted from the position of an EU east-
ern front state nearer to the centre, in the North,
East and Southeast embedded into new fellow
members, who up to the First World War had
been part of the same country, the Austro-Hun-
garian Monarchy. However, 1 May, 2004 did
not mean a sudden change. The enlargement
and integration process had started practically
immediately after the fall of the Iron Curtain
and it is (even as the ten new members are con-
cerned) not really completed. The new mem-
bers still do not enjoy the full freedom of labour
mobility, and are still not part of Schengen and
Euro zones. So, 1 May, 2004 must be regarded
as symbolic rather than as the great turning
point in the socio-economic integration process.
This is also true for the field of tourism.
The separated flow systems of tourism started
to reintegrate immediately after the turn of poli-
tics, if not earlier - as in the cases of Hungary
and former Yugoslavia; but the high expecta-
tions raised in the beginning were not really
fulfilled. Integration in tourism and growth of
mutual tourism flows proved to be slow and
long-term processes. Nor is Western tourism to
Central and Eastern Europe so far a strong
engine of regional development and spatial
disparity equalization. Rather it supports larger
cities
Tourism Flows in Central Europe
Before Communism: the Blueprint
for Flows in a Reintegrated
Central Europe?
Before World War I, when tourism was still very
much an upper class phenomenon, cures in the
winter season still had a major share in tourism.
Railway and ship were the dominant means
of transportation and the main generators of
and
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