Development of Cave Tourism in the Domica Area in Slovakia

The purpose of the study. The main goal of the study is to determine the most effective solutions for the development of cave tourism and medical tourism, as well as the standard of living and infrastructure of the region, based on the used literature and the questionnaire research on tourism development. Applied methods. The study starts with information about the natural and geological heritage found in the Domica region in Slovakia. It continues with the discovery, construction and characterization of the most significant caves from a tourist and economic point of view. Following the professional characterization, the questionnaire research developed and evaluated in the last stage of the study analyzes the possibility of the development of cave tourism and health tourism in the immediate vicinity of the Domica Cave based on the opinions, remarks and experiences of the service providers in the area. Outcomes. Caves are called natural underground cavities that have formed as a result of geomorphological and geophysical processes under different natural conditions. The caves in the karst are dissolved or are created by the weathering of the bedrock, while after the leakage of gases, caves form as cavities in the volcanic rocks. Few countries have as many different underground karst formations as Slovakia, with 7,014 known caves, of which only 18 can be visited. Discovering these underground wonders is a new challenge for hikers. Interest in caves peaked in the 20th century, when the desire to return to nature and improve the health of patients with respiratory diseases (speleotherapy) became the leading motivation. Today, caves are most often used for recreation. Nevertheless, within geotourism a popular way to explore caves is caving and the associated extreme or less extreme sports that only came to the fore in the 21st century. The results of the research of this study are sufficient evidence that the region is suitable for the development of cave tourism and medical tourism, for which the most obvious solution is to create an international geopark

Identification of Distorted Official Hospitality Statistics’ and Their Impact on DMOs’ Funding’s Sustainability: Case Notes from Slovakia

Analyzing the usability of open machine-readable registries in the context of minimizing gaps for local occupancy tax evasions in the example of Slovakia is the main purpose of this paper. The concept uses the Registry of Financial Statements’ and Registry of Legal Entities’ application programming interfaces (APIs) for extracting public data on companies’ and entrepreneurs’ business nature, in accordance with Eurostat’s Statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community (NACE) and United Nations’ International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC) at the level of entities’ registered address. The resulted data sets are compared with open official data that is available at the municipality level (LAU2), as gathered by the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic’s monthly surveys and municipalities’ annual accounts. The comparison’s outcomes indicate the deviations between the official and the possible numbers of entities with occupancy tax obligations, as well as tax revenues. The results conclude with how the incorporation of used open APIs in official processes may be beneficial for public and state institutions in the matter of potential local tax evasions, as well as for state regulated public-private partnership destination management organizations. The notes also discuss solutions for the minimization of data and the industry’s official impact distortion

Some Comments to Geosite Assessment, Visitors, and Geotourism Sustainability

Geotourism as a globally growing phenomenon is based on several principles where sustainability plays a key role. The value of an individual site of visitors’ interest (geosite, geomorphosite, or site of geological heritage—a primary point of interest in geotourism) may be expressed via specific assessment methods. However, recent geosite assessment methods are primarily focused on various aspects of geoheritage (e.g., location, scientific value, representativeness, etc.) and very low attention is paid to the majority of geotourism participants—people for whom the various geotourism products are introduced and offered. The geotourism development itself would not be possible without interest of tourists (visitors) in such places. Without the knowledge of relevant visitor data incorporated within the assessment, as discussed in this paper, such values, representing the result of the geosite assessment process, cannot be effectively utilized to help future geosite development and management activities related to overall (geo)tourism progress

Basic Input Data for Audiences’ Geotargeting by Destinations’ Partial Accessibility: Notes from Slovakia

The presented notes focus partially on two of the basic elements (accessibility and image) of any managed tourism destination from the perspective of basic ETL processes over open and third-party data. The specific case aims to investigate the usability of open government data on occupancy in combination with third-party data on online audiences’ engagement for DMOs’ potential seasonal geotargeting via utilizing Openrouteservice’s APIs. For the pilot case, a Slovak (Central Europe) destination’s data on occupancy, and the DMO’s website and social media engagement by origin were used to determine potential audiences’ accessibility by car. Testing of the pilot results on a sample of foreign markets indicates that by a partial mix of the means of transportation, the vast majority of audiences are within a 4 h long incoming trip. Although the preliminary tests indicate a linear correlation between the destination’s occupancy and online audiences’ share accessibility by car, for further extrapolation, the list of missing input remains long. The main addition to the field of tourism and destination management may be the partial reusability of developed techniques for data extraction, and transformation for further data overlays, which may save some time

Basic Input Data for Audiences’ Geotargeting by Destinations’ Partial Accessibility: Notes from Slovakia

The presented notes focus partially on two of the basic elements (accessibility and image) of any managed tourism destination from the perspective of basic ETL processes over open and third-party data. The specific case aims to investigate the usability of open government data on occupancy in combination with third-party data on online audiences’ engagement for DMOs’ potential seasonal geotargeting via utilizing Openrouteservice’s APIs. For the pilot case, a Slovak (Central Europe) destination’s data on occupancy, and the DMO’s website and social media engagement by origin were used to determine potential audiences’ accessibility by car. Testing of the pilot results on a sample of foreign markets indicates that by a partial mix of the means of transportation, the vast majority of audiences are within a 4 h long incoming trip. Although the preliminary tests indicate a linear correlation between the destination’s occupancy and online audiences’ share accessibility by car, for further extrapolation, the list of missing input remains long. The main addition to the field of tourism and destination management may be the partial reusability of developed techniques for data extraction, and transformation for further data overlays, which may save some time

The seabed - an important mineral resource of Slovakia in the future

In 1987, Slovakia bought part of the ocean bottom with the occurrence of mineral resources future - polymetallic nodules. The polymetallic nodule is a geological term for naming natural features consisting of more than 40 metals and other chemical elements. These special services originated in the ocean for two to three million years and nowadays, they are of main interest for countries whose mineral wealth is little or no available. Nodules contain about 30 % manganese, 1.2 % copper, 1.2 % nickel, 0.2 % cobalt, rare earth elements, etc. The existence of submarine nodules was found by the British ship HMS "Challenger" by oceanographic research in 1872 - 1876. Research and the subsequent mining of nodules were particularly points of interest for Western countries as well as the USSR. Rules for the use of mineral resources of the seabed beyond the limits of national jurisdiction were codified in the Convention on the Law of 1982, which came into force on 16.11.1994, and in the Slovakia on 21.7.1996. The seabed is one of the international space next to the high seas, Antarctica, outer space and celestial bodies, which are not subject to the sovereignty of any state authority

Linking Geoheritage or Geosite Assessment Results with Geotourism Potential and Development: A Literature Review

Geotourism is sustainable tourism form which is primarily based on the existence of geoheritage. Many research studies have been devoted to assessing geoheritage in last two decades, from various perspectives. Depending on the assessment methods and results, authors of such studies often refer to potential geotourism development based on specific geoheritage values. This paper, based on a study and analysis of relevant literature retrieved from WoS and Scopus databases, focuses on assessment criteria and their relevance to geotourism development for the general public. The results show that the absolute majority of assessment methods are probably of high importance for experts. However, in terms of effective application of the assessment results to sustainable geotourism development, different criteria should be used, including visual attractiveness, uniqueness, accessibility, safety, and the possibility of gaining knowledge. In this regard, extensive research is required on how geoheritage and its interpretation appeal to visitors, especially among the lay public