Insights into platform tourism services: Future demand perspectives in Slovakia

A model based on digital sharing has brought a new wind to the business world. Its growth was abruptly disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. As anti-epidemiological measures have most significantly affected the tourism sector, this paper attempts to outline the development perspective of platform tourism services. The aim of the paper is to examine the plans of the Slovak population related to the use of platform tourism services after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on the results of focus groups and questionnaire survey, the paper predicts, that the current crisis will not weaken the development of the tourism platform economy, while demand will be price-driven. As the economy of platform tourism services will be an integral part of our lives for many years to come, it is possible to assume a relentless interest not only of practice, but also of scholars. The research confirms that the accommodation and the transport are the most important paid platform tourism services. They are popular mainly because of the price, not because of the environmental friendliness which denote rather a positive externality of their use. Platform tourism services should be seen as a whole, not as fragments through the prism of selected platforms. The paper highlights information as a key segment and draws attention to the shortcomings of measuring platform services, especially transport ones. Platform tourism services will continue to transform the business. Therefore, it is necessary to better understand it and look for opportunities for its sustainable development. The uniqueness of the current study lies, among others, in the use of mixed methods which help to comprehensively understand the problem in depth and breadth

XXIV. mezinárodní kolokvium o regionálních vědách

Title in English: 24th International Colloquium on Regional Sciences: Conference proceedings. The conference proceedings consists of papers presented at the 24rd International Colloquium on Regional Sciences that was organized by Department of Regional Economics and Administration FEA MU. It contains 79 articles arranged by topic. The individual articles deal with e.g. socioeconomic disparities among regions, regional policy, territory attractiveness, tourism or regional public administration

Wellness tourism in Slovakia

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Volunteer Tourism as a Sustainable Form of Tourism—The Case of Organized Events

This paper focuses on volunteer tourism as a sustainable form of tourism relating to the volunteer service at a tourism destination and specific tourism activities. The aim of the paper is to explore volunteer tourism in Slovakia with examples of organized events, especially to search exactly how event’s organizers support the development of domestic and inbound volunteer tourism in Slovakia. This paper is based on a sociological survey. We addressed 653 heterogeneous event’s organizers in Slovakia. 18% of them participated in the questionnaire survey. The collected data were processed by selected mathematical and statistical methods in SPSS statistics program. As such, we found most events organizers team up with volunteers. Only half of the organizers cooperate with local volunteers, while the second half also support the development of volunteer tourism engaging in voluntourism. In the case of attractive events, the engagement of voluntourists could be more effective. The current situation has resulted from missing information about the management of volunteers but it could be improved through an e-manual for event organizers providing an outline guide for volunteer management