From the Orchard to the Full Bottle: One of the Geostories of the Nature & Geopark Styrian Eisenwurzen

A geopark mission does not consists just of presenting and interpreting the geological phenomena and processes, but it also includes conservation and sustainable use of the natural resources as well as understanding and supporting the local people and their culture. For sure, the geology of the area determinates the local flora and fauna as well as the local life style. On different examples, this case study presents how the Nature and Geopark Styrian Eisenwurzen is involving local people to protect the local geoheritage and natural resources as well as to raise its visibility and touristic attraction. It shows that the traditional local production can contribute both to the landscape conservation and geoheritage interpretation, and that the application of participatory management and ABC interpretive concept can affect all that in a synergic way.

Pilgrims’ Motivation for Travelling to the Iasi Feast

Either due to religious and spiritual motivations or to personal ones, religious pilgrimages have become increasingly popular during the last decades. The article proposes a study concerning the motivations of pilgrims who travel to Iasi every year in October to attend a religious event organized in the city. The main goal of this paper is to present the results of the research concerning the main travel motivations of pilgrims. The issue is whether their socio-demographic profile influences their travel motivations and the extent to which pilgrims’ satisfaction is determined by the travel motivations they declare. This is quantitative research which uses a questionnaire survey, based on the data provided by 441 respondents. The results are important for the scholars in religious tourism and for destination managers who use this kind of data to improve their planning and organisational activities of such events.

Exploring Relations between Heritage Interpretation, Visitors Learning Experience and Tourist Satisfaction

The main objective of the heritage interpretation is communication and dissemination of scientific knowledge generated around a certain site. Therefore, this article aims to demonstrate that the use of an adequate interpretation methodology contributes to improving a mere aesthetic experience through greater learning outcomes, more intense emotional binding, higher awareness of the heritage conservation and overall satisfaction with the visit. Thus, the heritage interpretation has become a critical tool for creating competitive cultural or nature-based tourism services and products providing hosting destinations with attractive tourism offers. The methods of this study include a literature review, which summarises the findings of different research projects assessing the relationship between the aforementioned variables. The main conclusions drawn from this review are that there exist adequate methodologies for the heritage interpretation, which contribute to improve learning outcomes, improved tourist satisfaction and emotional experiences during the visit.

Potentials of Agrotourism on Social and Economic Development of the Selected Agricultural Farms and Adjoining Communities in South-Western Nigeria

Agrotourism industry has contributed immensely to economy of many developing nations, especially in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. This forms a basis for these research findings aimed at assessing the potential of agrotourism in Obasanjo Farm and Oakfield farm for improving the livelihood of immediate communities. This study employed a multiple research instrument while theoretical and specific practical approaches were used in the identification and classification of the potential agrotourism activities using a thematic qualitative, descriptive quantitative and SWOT analysis. The results show that 71% of the respondents have basic knowledge of agrotourism. The Likert scale shows that the respondents completely agreed (4.52) that agrotourism is beneficial to people and equally agreed (4.56) on the need to develop it. Recommendations are drawn from the SWOT analysis on the need for farm management to strengthen available opportunities through incorporating agrotourism activities with other farming activities, while addressing the environmental threats and organisational weaknesses.

Big Data: a Source of Mobility Behaviour and a Strategic Tool for Destination Management

The abundant use of the Internet and mobile technologies while traveling leaves a digital footprint in the form of big data that can be tracked. Big data bring information about spatial visitor behaviour that is valuable for strategic destination management. Big data enrich not only scientific fields (e. g. management, marketing, or geography) with their knowledge, but also represent the invention of new tools for their actual processing. Generally, big data are considered as a strategic tool enhancing the competitiveness of a destination. The paper presents the basic characteristics of big data and reviews research focused on big data in tourism. Moreover, it identifies its potential for tourism from both the theoretical and methodological point of view. The final part deals with current trends in using the big data in tourism and its application in destination management. The future trends of big data in the context of destination management are implied as well.

The Visit Rate of Bardejov Spa in the Context of its History

The main objective of this article was to evaluate the impact of historical events on the visit rate of Bardejov Spa in various periods of its development (in the years of 1814–2016). The collection of information on clients’ spa visits, especially the oldest data, was difficult (19th century and 1st and 2nd World War). Much information was available only in the State Archive of the Ministry of the Interior of the Slovak Republic in Hungarian and Latin. Some data for several years were not available at all, and some data were not recorded in writing. The paper summarizes the history of the spa, natural medical sources, spa treatment and indications. At present, the number of guests has an increasing trend, as evidenced by the visit rate for 2016, as well as by current data for 2017. In 2016, Bardejov Spa reached a pick of the visit rate with 25,863 clients. In 2017, there were 27,170 clients. The main clients are the Slovaks, about 90%.

Reviewing the Past to Inform the Future: A Literature Review of Social Media in Tourism

Acknowledging the significant advancement of social media, the role and impact of social media has been widely discussed in tourism research. As a result, it has become increasingly difficult to obtain an overview of the knowledge produced in relation to the topic. Review studies provide such overviews to guide future research efforts. This study reviews and analyses 152 tourism-related social media publications since 2008. Based on a qualitative systematic analysis of publications that address the topic from a consumer perspective, the paper identifies publication trends and highlights patterns in the topics, aims, and research designs of existing publications. Specifically, it captures a broader array of consumer-centric topics than previous reviews and highlights methodological gaps. Moreover, the research argues that there is still ample room for more research on social media in tourism, particularly as the existing literature neglects social media beyond review platforms while demonstrating that user-generated content greatly influences tourist behaviours and experiences.

New Trends in Geoproducts Development: Železné Hory National Geopark Case Study

Geotourism is still a relatively new direction of tourism and its development is bound mainly to the territory of geoparks. Many geoparks try to develop different types of geo-products with a focus on different target groups. However, the nature of these products is very different and their development is evident mainly in the time scale. In the past, simple forms of interpretation and application of geoproducts were popular, whereas currently, modern technologies such as animations or augmented reality are thriving. This is mainly due to the better availability of technological equipment. At the same time, a number of geoparks boast of above-average interpreters, who are able to render and simplify difficult geological topics. This also applies to their ability to create of new geoproducts, where the need to abbreviate and condense information is evident. The results of the study show a positive trend in the use of modern methods in geoscience interpretation and in the creation of new geoproducts. At the same time, it is clear that without a modern concept it is very difficult to reach the current visitors. Therefore, such a concept is necessary in order to develop geoscientific issues, especially in the area of geoparks.

Occupancy of the Slovak Accommodation Establishments by Foreign Tourists

Accommodation has an important role in the development of tourism in every country we perceive as the tourism destination. Due to the increasing competition in the tourism industry, it is necessary to analyze the occupancy of the accommodation establishments, and thus to find specific segments of the market, which the tourism development strategy should focus on. The aim of this study is to describe, which types of the selected accommodation establishments are preferred in the Slovak Republic by foreign tourists with a special focus on seven specific nationalities (Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Ukrainian, German, Austrian, and Russian nationalities). Formally, the hypothesis being tested is whether there is a statistically significant relationship in the choice of the accommodation establishment by tourists of any of these nationalities over time. In addition, we aim to discuss the development of the selected types of the accommodation establishments in the Slovak Republic in 2014–2017, and at the same time to emphasize the development of the hotels according to hotel classes. The results showed that in the Slovak Republic, the most numerous groups of the accommodation establishments by their type, were hotels, motels, botels, and guesthouses, and these establishments are also the most used by foreign tourists. Furthermore, the set hypothesis has been confirmed, on the basis of the results of Friedman ANOVA and the Kendall coefficient of concordance.

Zoo Tourism: What Actually Is a Zoo?

Zoos are one of the most visited tourist attractions worldwide - we should perceive them, therefore, not only as places where animals are kept, but also as places frequented by large numbers of people. This is why we talk of zoo tourism. However, there are different definitions of a zoo. This wide range of possible approaches to what actually the zoo is poses a major methodological problem for the research analysis as well as for the zoo management and related legislation. Zoos are historically and socially determined. We can talk not only about the evolution of zoos but also about the co-evolution of zoos alongside many types of zoos. Nowadays, there is no doubt that there is a large number of modern and naturalistic zoos oriented on conservation, but there are also many zoos designed as popular animal-based attractions where animals live in unsuitable conditions. The principal aim of this article is to introduce and discuss problematic approaches to what zoos are and to suggest a use of a wider zoo definition.