Abstract
Among the factors influencing tourist trail network development are political issues, including the presence of state borders, the possibility of crossing them and the accessibility of border zones. In the article, it was decided to look at changes in the offer of tourist trails (hiking and cycling) along the entire border of the Czech Republic after the extension of the Schengen area (within this area, crossing the border is possible anywhere, and not only at official border crossings). It should be emphasized here that the borders of the Czech Republic over most of their length run through mountainous areas and, apart from political factors, natural features should have a major impact on the development of tourist routes. In order to determine the coherence of the current network of trails on both sides of the Czech Republic state border, modern tourist maps have been analyzed, determining the number of places where it is possible to cross the state border with the help of a marked tourist trail. Based on that, two indicators were introduced to determine the degree of openness with all neighboring countries as regards the opportunity to cross on a tourist trail. Changes in the historical situation, a comparison of the accessibility of the border area before entering the Schengen area and 2019, were analyzed for two study areas using archival maps. Over a decade after the extension of the Schengen area, the number of places where tourist trails of neighboring countries approach the border has clearly increased. Crossing is more often made possible using hiking trails than cycling routes (trails of the first type cross the border every 7.91 km, while the latter every 13.3 km), but considering the speed of movement, it can be assessed that the openness for cyclists is higher than for hikers. Moreover, in many places there is still significant potential for further integration of tourist trail networks as trails created in one country often do not have a continuation on the other side of the border.
Highlights
The development of a network of tourist trails is dependent on many factors of both a natural and human nature (Kowalczyk and Derek 2010)
The entry of Central European countries into the Schengen area has contributed to the development of the tourist trail network and to the improvement of their integration on both sides of the border
The article shows the example of the borders of the Czech Republic with all its neighbors, of which the vast majority run through areas with mountain relief
Summary
The development of a network of tourist trails is dependent on many factors of both a natural and human nature (Kowalczyk and Derek 2010) Among the latter, political factors seem to have a huge impact on the shape of networks (Potocki 2004, 2010, 2013), especially in the border zones of selected countries (Anderson and O’Dowd 1999), and in particular those characterized by low international openness. In the case of Central and Eastern Europe, the political factor played a crucial role during the communist period States such as Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic and Poland were part of the so-called Soviet bloc, being under the control of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, crossing their state borders or even staying in their neighborhood was very difficult and often required special permits or passes (Sroka 2013). Sometimes even a ten or more kilometer-wide border zone was deprived of residents, inaccessible to anyone except for the army and closely guarded so that no one could illegally enter the West
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