Geography of tourism in the Czech Republic

Abstract

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.