Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 6.6.
Balance of revenues and
expenditures in international tourism,
2003. Source: Tourismus in Zahlen
2005, p. 84.
Travel Markets for Central and
Eastern European Countries
second, but also in Poland, Slovenia and
Hungary, where they hold ranks between four
and six. Austrians play a major role in Hungary
and Slovenia, where they rank second and
third, respectively, while in Croatia and
Slovakia they reach the fifth place in the order
of tourist nations. Surprisingly enough they are
rather weakly represented in the Czech Repu-
blic (2%, tenth place). Dutch tourists rank third
in the Czech Republic, fourth in Hungary, sixth
in Slovenia and seventh in Croatia.
Alongside these most important markets
for Central and Eastern European tourism, the
USA (particularly in the Czech Republic and
Hungary) and France (mainly Poland) also
have larger shares among Western nations,
while the Czech Republic (particularly in
Slovakia and Croatia), Poland (in Slovakia and
the Czech Republic), Hungary (in Croatia,
Slovenia and Slovakia), Russia (in Poland) and
Slovenia (in Croatia) have the largest shares
among Eastern nations.
In general, it can be stated that after more
than a decade of transformation Central and
Eastern European countries, with the minor
exception of Slovakia, display a market struc-
ture typical for Central Europe and very near
As can be seen from the data presented in
enjoy a relative majority in the number of over-
night stays amongst foreigners in all Central and
Eastern European countries with the exception
of Slovakia. This is most marked in Hungary,
Poland and the Czech Republic where Germans
make up 36%, 35% and 34%, respectively, of
all foreign overnight stays. In Slovakia, German
overnight stays are outnumbered by those of
Czechs, whose share is one quarter. This
emphasizes the traditional role Slovakia has
played as a recreation area for Czechs since
at least World War I (see Jordan, 1992b).
All other markets are far behind the
Germans in playing a role as tourists in Central
and Eastern European countries. The relatively
most important are the Italians. Most markedly
they are represented in Slovenia and Croatia,
where they rank just below the Germans, in sec-
ond place, followed by Hungary and the Czech
Republic where they rank third and fourth,
respectively. Britons are well-represented espe-
cially in the Czech Republic, where they rank
