Cooperation between municipalities and the private sector in the field of tourism

Abstract

The public sector very often encounters a lack of the financial resources needed to finance tourism projects. In this context, different models of public - private partnerships are proving to be appropriate solutions. The fact that the private sector is more efficient than the public sector in implementing big infrastructure projects that need to be implemented in the field of tourism can be mentioned in favour of using such a partnership, and moreover the use of public-private partnership models (PPP) does not have an immediate impact on public budgets. The aim of the paper is the analysis of a selected model of PPP in the field of tourism at the local level in the conditions of the Slovak Republic. Municipalities enter into PPP projects with tourism enterprises in order to create Local Tourism Organizations (LTO). LTO is a legal entity established under Act No. 91/2010 Coll. on the promotion of tourism. It supports and creates conditions for the development of tourism in its territory and protects the interests of its members. The data for the analysis were data obtained from the Register of LTO in the Slovak Republic and the FINSTAT database. We used multiple regression and correlation analysis to test the established hypotheses. The results of the analysis show that in 2018, there were 35 LTO in Slovak Republic, in which 953 entities and 269 municipalities were involved. At the same time, a statistically significant dependence of selected economic benefits resulting from this PPP model was demonstrated.