Abstract
There are numerous examples of cross-border regions in Europe, which are regions not properly demarcated by national borders. One of the main driving forces of the European Union is to turn the dividing borders into connecting borders by strengthening the cohesion between states and regions, thus, encouraging regions to remedy the existing ethnic and cultural fragmentation by increasing the intensity and number of cross-border contacts. Our research focuses on proving that, in symbolic places, such as the cross-border area of Komárom and Komárno, the cultural values, monuments, and heritage sites are the strongest attraction factors for nationality-based cultural tourism. To support our hypothesis, we conducted an empirical survey within the framework of the H2020 SPOT (Social and Innovative Platform on Cultural Tourism and its potential towards deepening Europeanisation) in the cross-border region of Komárom and Komárno. The evaluation concentrated on four aspects of cultural tourism: the nature of cultural tourism in the area, the resident and visitor perceptions of the cultural tourism offerings, opportunities to increase cross-border collaboration, and options to improve the cultural tourism offerings of the area. Our results show that, although there is a great potential in the cross-border tourist destination of Komárom–Komárno, the integration of the (once united) two towns is advancing very slowly, which can be witnessed in the weaknesses of tourism integration as well.
Highlights
A special historical feature of Central and Eastern Europe is that, during the formation of national borders, many areas with ethnically diverse populations came under the jurisdiction of other nation states as regions inhabited by minority nationalities
We found that 44% of them thought that the tourism offerings of historical sites met their expectations
We identified the lack of tourism marketing skills and experts and the lack of investment in tourism marketing as the main barriers to the development of cultural tourism in the area
Summary
A special historical feature of Central and Eastern Europe is that, during the formation of national borders, many areas with ethnically diverse populations came under the jurisdiction of other nation states as regions inhabited by minority nationalities. The. European Union has inherited many of these historically cohesive cultural and ethnic areas in the course of its eastern enlargement. One of the main driving forces of the European Union is to turn the dividing borders into connecting borders by strengthening the cohesion between states and regions, encouraging regions to remedy the existing ethnic and cultural fragmentation by increasing the intensity and number of cross-border contacts. Our case study area is the cross-border twin city of Komárom–Komárno lying on each side of the Danube between Slovakia and Hungary, respectively (Figure 1). The region of Nitra is the third most advanced area in Slovakia [59]
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