The Geography of Tourism of Central and Eastern European Countries

This chapter characterizes the contemporary role of the Eastern and Central European countries in the international tourism and as the source of the tourist movement and the income and expenditure balance in the foreign tourism. Among the Central and Eastern European countries, there are 20 former socialist countries. Some of them came into existence as a result of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia disintegration. Their total surface adds up to 64% of the Europe area. Tourist potential of the Central and Eastern European countries is significant, expressed by, among the others, a high number of national parks, natural and cultural UNESCO heritage objects and by the capacity of the accommodation units (2014, 2.7 million of beds). The size of the international incoming tourism is illustrated with data for 2005 and 2013 concerning the number of foreign visitors (280 million and 308 million), foreign tourists (280 million and 99 million of people) with overnight stays (95 million and 103 million) and financial income arising from attending them (34 billion euro and 85 billion dollars). Outbound tourism of Central and Eastern Europe inhabitants in 2005 and 2013 amounted to 129 billion and 124 billion of departures and expenditures of 31 billion euro and 99 billion euro. The financial balance taking into account the income from attending international tourism as well as the inhabitants’ own expenditures spent for outbound departures amounted to +3 billion euro in 2003 and –14 billion dollars in 2013.

The beginning of the research in the field of geography of tourism started in 1970s with the analysis of the natural and cultural potential. Next decade was dedicated to the territorial organization of recreational activities and tourist regionalization of the country. The new century brought new challenges in research. The scientific investigation focuses on the competitiveness of tourism, services development, and functional organization of the values together with the development of the new geoeconomic approach to the analysis of the tourist market. The natural resource potential of the country starts with the description of the types of existing landscapes, climate, and water conditions for resting tourism and recreation. The role of protected areas in the tourism development with its division is stressed. Next part presents the structure of historical and cultural heritage of Belarus. The most important sights, such as monuments, museums, or military objects are described. In reference to the tourist infrastructure as the most important for tourism development, the accommodation is presented in detail with its numbers, category, and spatial distribution. A discussion about the state of tourism movement in Belarus is led in the next part of the chapter that stresses its structure as well as geographical distribution and importance of a given tourist region for the tourism development. The last part is dedicated to the description of the most important types of tourism practiced in the country such as spa and wellness tourism, cultural and event tourism, rural or religious tourism. The part entitled “The Tourist Regions of Belarus” summarizes the chapter.

Bulgaria is one of the most developed tourist regions in Central and Eastern Europe. In 2014, Bulgaria was visited by nearly 9.5 million foreign tourists, over 2 million more than the number of inhabitants. Bulgaria is situated in southeast Europe in a remote corner of the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula on the Black Sea. Despite the small area (110,000 km²), the country is distinguished by a great diversity of landscape, which represents potential for tourism development practically all year round. The most important role in tourism in Bulgaria is played by the coastal landscape. Regarding that, Bulgarian Black Sea Coast resembles the Mediterranean coast. There are also diverse mountain ranges in Bulgaria—the Rila, Pirin, and Rhodope—which are the highest mountains of the alpine landscape. Bulgaria is also a culturally attractive tourist region. Location of Bulgaria in southern Europe at the crossroads of Eastern and Western culture gave it a strong multicultural dimension visible today in the architecture, customs, religion, and even the cuisine of this country. Based on the natural and cultural assets, the development of several major forms of tourism can be considered in Bulgaria. The most developed are coastal and mountain tourism (winter and hiking) accompanied by health and spa tourism, which have the longest tradition. Since the times of political changes in the nineties of the last century, agrotourism and various forms of cultural tourism (e.g., religious tourism, wine tourism, and urban tourism) have become popular in Bulgaria.

Croatia, located in one of the oldest and most important tourist regions of the world, the Mediterranean Basin, is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe. Traditions of tourism development in Croatia date back to Roman times. The mass tourism, however, expanded in the 1960s and in the 1970s in accordance with an economic policy of Yugoslavia. The number of tourists visiting Croatia was increasing until the Yugoslav civil wars, fought from 1991 to 1995. Croatia has been making a successful effort to return to the international tourism market since then. In 2014, the country was visited by 13.2 million tourists, which is almost 3 times more than its population. Tourists are attracted by both natural and cultural heritage. Although historical places, monuments, museums, and other cultural attractions are of a great value and begin to play an increasingly important role in the development of tourism, the geographical diversity seems to be the main reason for visiting Croatia. The Adriatic Sea shore contrasts with the Dinaric Alps and lowlands regions and varies the territory of only 56,594 km². Moreover, the indented coastline with a large number of islands (1246 islands, islets, rocks, and reefs) together with the Mediterranean climate are the reasons why Croatia is perceived primarily as a country of coastal tourism, where leisure activities are of a great importance. On the other hand, new forms of marine tourism, such as yachting and diving, are also widespread.

Geography of tourism in the country is presented by discussing five different problem areas presented in the national literature, such as spatial organisation of tourism, its main forms and types, analysis of selected localisation, selective and realisation factors in tourism or applied research in the field of geographical problems in tourism. Geographical situation and natural preconditions for tourism in the Czech Republic are introduced in this chapter. The distribution of tourism resources focuses on the specificity of natural conditions with its unique landscape, climate, fauna and flora and water conditions. The geographical approach serves as a presentation of preserved territories of the country’s area. The most important in this category are national parks, which are shortly described. An important, however brief, part of the chapter is dedicated to the description of the historical and cultural heritage of cultural centres and architectural monuments. The values potential is complemented by a presentation of basic and secondary infrastructure of tourism stressing the role of accommodation facilities and sport-recreational and transport infrastructure. The next part presents the inbound tourism with its dynamics, structure, seasonality and qualitative change of demand, as well as opinions of tourists about their visits and most preferred destinations. The main types of tourism shortly introduced here are as follows: urban, sport, congress and spa and wellness tourism. This chapter is summarised with a description of tourism regionalisation in the Czech Republic.

Tourism as a new discipline emerged in Hungary in the 1960s. Since then different topics have been researched, such as tourist conditions of the Balaton and Danube regions or medical tourism in Hungary. The 1980s was the time of the first comprehensive analysis of natural resources regarding tourism aspect. In the last decade of the twentieth century, some new topics were researched, such as city or rural tourism. The beginning of a new century meant a more interdisciplinary approach to tourism. This chapter presents the natural preconditions for tourism such as relief features, climatic, hydrologic and biographic conditions. Short description allows us to point the most attractive areas of the country in terms of recreation. The special attention is paid to the protected areas existing in Hungary, among them 10 national parks, whose potential concerning the tourist movement and the infrastructure supporting the reception of values is also discussed. The cultural part of tourist values is presented in the most important tourist sites—in this case: World Heritage Sites, culture centres and the most recognizable values represented by museums as a part of tangible heritage and cultural events as the intangible potential. The tourist infrastructure of the country is presented through both transport and sport-recreational and accommodation elements. First element along with the state of transport infrastructure describes hiking trails, cycling routes and winter sports facilities. The accommodation sector situation in the last two decades presents changes in its capacity and spatial differentiation. An important part is the analysis of the contemporary situation of tourist movement in Hungary: domestic and international tourism, seasonality and its regional distribution. In the last part, the main types of tourism such as spa and wellness or rural tourism are described.

The chapter “Lithuanian Tourism Geography” includes an analysis of tourism trade development in Lithuania. The emphasis is placed on the last decades following the restoration of the statehood. Territorial analysis of tourism resources is the priority issue discussed. The chapter also contains information about the specific character of natural conditions and historical cultural heritage. In focus are preserved territories with concentrated complexes of cultural heritage, which are of paramount importance for educational tourism, recreation, scientific research and environmental and ethnocultural education. The territorial distribution of national and regional parks, nature reserves, preserved natural objects and monuments is given. Health and summer resorts are inventoried, concentrating on rural (ecological) tourism as one of the most promising branches of tourism trade. The chapter contains the information about the most popular types of tourism in Lithuania: bicycle tours, motor tourism, water tourism, sports and pilgrimage tourism, etc. It also introduces entertainment and business infrastructures. Rapidly modernized accommodation system—number, structure and location of accommodation establishments—is a reflection of inbound and outbound tourism development in Lithuania. The chapter also contains a survey of foreign tourism markets and most attractive tourism territories for various foreign tourism segments. The most interesting tourism routes in the main tourism regions of the country are discussed. The trends of the inbound tourism of recent years, which create preconditions for development of other branches of economy and culture, are analysed. The advantages and imperfections of the system of tourism in Lithuania are indicated and the future perspective of this important trade is suggested.

Polish school of geography of tourism has started in 1930s and continues its development constantly although with a break for Second World War. Among the most important scientific centers, there are Jagiellonian University Kraków or universities in Warsaw, Wrocław, or Łódź. Its former and contemporary achievements placed the geography of tourism among the most important scientific disciplines within geography. One of the most important research fields is the assessment of the conditions contributing to the tourism development in Poland on different fields. This chapter presents the diversity of Polish landscape and the natural conditions for the recreation on one side and the natural values that draw attention of sightseeing tourists. Therefore, the most important protected areas like national parks are characterized. Cultural and historical values constitute an important issue favorable for tourism development in Poland. Its potential presented here derives from two main sources: UNESCO heritage site mostly of the cultural character and the historic monuments of Poland. These two lists embrace the most important collection of cultural values worldwide known such as Wieliczka Saltworks, the Wawel Museum of Art, or Auschwitz–Birkenau Museum which is confirmed also by the number of visitors. The key factor for the tourism development in Poland is the infrastructure, mainly accommodation facilities. Its short history of development shown in the chapter leads to the presentation of its contemporary state through its quantity and structure. Detailed description of the tourism movement in the twenty-first century reflects all the elements which characterize its structure and complicity. The chapter summarizes the presentation of the main types of tourism in Poland together with its description presenting the potential to be developed.

The “Carpathic-Danubian-Pontic” geography of Romania is completed and defined by the personality of the Carpathian Mountains, the Danube Delta and Valley and the Black Sea, all these units in a nearly symmetrical combination with the hills and plains, determined by the steplike arrangement of the relief. A situation marked by originality and specificity is the tourist system formed of the Black Sea and the Danube Delta. On the backdrop of an exceptional natural environment human resources consisting of archaeological sites, historical buildings, architectural and art establishments, museums and memorial houses, testimonies of civilization and popular culture through elements of ethnography, the villages and tourist resorts boost the tourist valences of these areas facilitating the outline and development of a wide range of forms of tourism: leisure and health, hunting, rural, cultural, scientific, mountain etc. The tourist infrastructures are elements which support the tourist phenomena in reception areas and include hotels and motels, tourist villas and bungalows, touristic and agro-touristic boarding houses, ships and accommodation space. To these are added roads, railways, airports and waterways to connect important touristic regions and the main types of tourism: rural, mountain, leisure, health, cruise of the Danube, hunting and fishing, etc. The tourist regionalization of the Romanian territory, using as landmarks the value of the tourist potential and tourism infrastructure, outlined 32 regions which involve the capitalization and promotion of the natural and human heritage as an essential resource for tourism development in Romania.

The development of geography of tourism started in the 1970s with prof. Preobrazhensky. The Soviet school of recreational geography determines human recreational activities as an integral part of social and spiritual life and inextricably connects it to the labor force. Those days the basis of the Russian recreational geography was the doctrine of territorial recreation systems (TRS)—characterized by functional and territorial integrity. At present, Russian geography of tourism can be regarded as the science of spatial regularities and features of functioning of regional systems in the organization of tourist activity. The chapter in brief shows the history of tourism development in Russia treating this part as a kind of introduction to the contemporary state of tourism. The statistical data regarding domestic and international tourist movement, as well as its size and structure is analyzed. An important part of the chapter is dedicated to a detailed presentation of the most popular types of tourism practiced in Russia. As the most important ones, the authors recognize cultural and educational tourism, stressing the importance of the most popular tourist route—“The Golden ring of Russia,” ethnic tourism—rather important part of the tourist potential in multicultural society, religious tourism, military-patriotic tourism, ecotourism, or event tourism. The next part of the chapter focuses on the tourist division of the regions in the European part of Russia. The prospects for the development of tourism in the country summarize the chapter.

Tourist aspect of geography first appeared in Slovakian research in 1960s. The most significant is the Geography of Tourism monograph from 1983 by Mariot. Since then, different approaches, such as regional or material and technical preconditions, appeared. This century in the literature focuses on the models of products in tourism industry. An important part of the chapter is the presentation of natural preconditions of tourism development starting from the landscape through the natural parks to the point values. Values gathered from thematic routes, urban preserves or folk architecture reserves are examples of cultural and historical preconditions of tourism development. There are also mentioned the most important cultural events as well as values combining both types: the cultural and natural sites inscribed in the UNESCO list of the world heritage. The part dedicated to the tourist infrastructure presents the contemporary state of the accommodation facilities such as its capacity, category and other statistic data. Sports and recreation infrastructure, as an important issue for tourism development in a country, is described briefly. Macroeconomic statistics of tourism in Slovakia serve as a kind of summary of the infrastructure presentation. The last part is dedicated to the main types of tourism such as urban or rural tourism, alpine and classical skiing, spa and wellness tourism, or even not expected in this region of Europe—wine tourism.

Slovenia is characterized by diverse landscapes on a relatively small geographic area. The natural diversity is enhanced by human modifications, in particular, rural land use and colonization. The heterogeneity of the landscape and diversity of the country provide an abundance of opportunities for recreational use and tourism. The beginnings of the modern tourism development can be traced back to the 1960s and 1970s, when Slovenia was a part of Yugoslavia. Following the announcement of independence in 1991 and general disintegration of the federal state of Yugoslavia, the number of foreign visitors was drastically reduced. In the beginning of the third millennium, Slovenia has experienced an above-average rate of tourism growth. Simultaneously, important differences between various tourism markets can be observed. Slovenia as a tourist destination is becoming less dependent on domestic tourists and neighboring countries as the share of tourists from more distant countries is increasing. Nonetheless, in most Slovenian municipalities, domestic tourists prevail. Tourists are attracted predominantly by country’s natural features. Because of its picturesque, heterogeneous landscape, relatively well-preserved environment and favorable location in relation to its main tourism markets, Slovenia will likely remain a popular tourist destination. Nonetheless, the country is, in the European context, only a moderately developed destination and tourism in Slovenia is already facing many challenges.

In the last decade, the tourist movement in Ukraine has shown different trends—from growth to reduction in the number of visits. This was due to economic reasons (global financial crisis), as well as social and political reasons (annexation of Crimea, military aggression in the east of Ukraine). In particular, over the past 15 years Ukraine has shown both an increase in international tourist flows (from 6.5 million people in 2000 to 25 million people in 2005) and at intervals their sharp decrease to 20 million people in 2009–2010 and 12.7 million people in 2014. In the period of 2000–2014, the outbound tourism in Ukraine has shown a continuous growth: in 2000–2009, 13–15 million people annually went abroad, and in 2010–2011, 17 and 19 million people respectively, while in the period of 2012–2014, their number ranged from 21 to 23.7 million people. The development of traditional types of tourism and recreation activities (ski, sea vacations, recreational holidays) and the new ones (rural tourism, ecotourism, geotourism, gastronomic tourism) has been observed. Their main centres possess basic and supporting infrastructure and carry out appropriate information and marketing policy to attract domestic and international tourists. Within Ukraine, there are four existing recreational and tourist regions based on resource, infrastructure and economic and spatial criteria; they are as follows: the Carpathian, Crimea, the Azov-Black Sea and the Dnieper regions. Such regions as Polissia in the north of the country, Volyn-Podolsk in the west and Slobozhansk-Donetsk in the east are now forming their regional tourist and recreational facilities.