COVID-19 AND CENTRAL EUROPEAN TOURISM: THE COMPETITIVENESS OF SLOVAK TOURIST GUIDES

Abstract

When the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in the Central European region in March 2020, one of the hardest-hit economic sectors was the tourism industry which virtually came to a complete standstill. The present paper uses licensed tourist guides from Slovakia as a case study of how significant the financial impact of the crisis was and what effect it might have on the future competitiveness of the industry, as perceived by the tourist guides themselves. The research is based on a questionnaire which was distributed among licensed tourist guides in Slovakia in July 2020. It is shown that the guiding income of more than four-fifths of the respondents decreased by at least 80% between March and June 2020, and the profession's outlook for the future is pessimistic. The main concerns are a decline in the number of visitors, a decline in demand for guided tours and lower market prices for guiding services. The lower share of group travel, faster development of proximity tourism, partial de-professionalisation of the tourist guide profession and higher emphasis on tour hygiene are the expected impacts of the pandemic. A wave of consolidation is almost guaranteed to influence the tourism industry, though its extent is hard to predict.Implications for Central European audience: The article deals with tourism, which represents an important part of Central European countries' economies. Its results constitute the first preview of impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the sector in the region and as such are valuable for stakeholders in the Central European tourism industry. Even though the research is based on data obtained only from one tourism-related profession, tourist guides, given their unique position between travel agencies and travellers, their insights are applicable and interpretable much more broadly.