Caves of the Low Tatras National Park and Its Neighbourhood as Objects of Speleotourism

doi:10.46544/ams.v26i2.15

Abstract

Publicly accessible caves are important objects of the modern form of tourism, which is called speleotourism. The caves are important underground geolocalities, which are characterized by a high accumulation of visitors in a specific natural environment. They are usually part of large protected areas - national parks and protected landscape areas. The study deals with accessible caves in the Low Tatras National Park in the central part of Slovakia. In the national park, or rather in its vicinity, there are four caves formed in the carbonate rocks of the geological core of the Low Tatras mountains. In the first part of the study, we presented their basic geographical characteristics in terms of their description as underground geolocalities. The main aim of the study is to analyze the number of visitors to the Demänovská Cave of Freedom, Demänovská Ice Cave, located directly in the national park, Bystrianska Cave located in the buffer zone of the national park and Važecká Cave, located on the northern edge of the studied area. Individual geolocalities were evaluated in terms of 12 criteria (e.g., Variety and attractiveness of cave decoration, Interpretation of the guide, Difficulty of the tour, Amount of ticket price, and others), which were indexed answers of (speleo)tourists from the opinion poll. We conducted the survey during the summer months in the period from 2010 to 2019, and a total of 160 respondents participated. The basic results of a standardized public opinion survey gave us the answer to five research hypotheses. The results confirmed the important potential of caves as specific geolocalities for the development of (underground) speleotourism as a modern form of tourism. Speleotourism is currently an important form of tourism, which is developing in the national parks.

Highlights

Caves are objects of geotourism, often sought after by visitors for a specific natural environment
In terms of caves attendance, we focused on the summer months of 2010-2019, when all four caves are open to the public (Table 15, Graph 1-5)
The paper presents an analysis of attendance over the last decade and a public opinion survey to assess the potential for speleotourism

Summary

Introduction

Caves are objects of geotourism, often sought after by visitors for a specific natural environment. Some cave spaces are rarely used for cultural purposes, such as cultural events, weddings, concerts, religious events, filming They are used as storage spaces, underground factories, respectively, somewhere they still have a residential function. The caves could be used for the preparation, training, and related activities of the armed forces for civil protection purposes, fire and rescue service members, the mountain rescue service, or the components of the integrated rescue system. Another form of use of cave spaces (even those inaccessible to the public) is scientific research associated with the efforts of speleologists to extend existing (known) cave systems and discover new ones

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