Tourism as an Instrument of Economic Development of the Banská Bystrica Self-Governing Region

Abstract

The paper focuses on the evaluation of regional tourism in terms of its economic development potential. Based on selected economic indicators (e.g. registered unemployment rate, capacity and performances of accommodation facilities, average number of employees and average nominal wage), we analyse the position of the territory in the regional structure of Slovakia and describe factors that determine the development of the region (location, absence of large cities, poor transport infrastructure). Via valorising the natural and anthropogenic assumptions we evaluate the potential of the territory in the context of the possibilities of tourism development in it. Valorisation was carried out in relation to the main recreational activities, where the aggregate value of the potential expresses precisely the possibilities of developing recreational activities in the studied area. The most developed are the districts of Banská Bystrica and Brezno, forming the Horehronský tourism region. The less developed region with untapped tourism potential is Pohronský region, represented by the districts of Zvolen, Žiar nad Hronom, Žarnovica, Banská Štiavnica and Detva. The Gemerský region (the Rimavská Sobota and Revúca districts) shows the greatest difference between the potential of the territory and the current state of the level of tourism development. The least developed area with the lowest tourism potential is the Ipeľský region (districts Krupina, Veľký Krtíš, Poltár and Lučenec). Based on selected statistical indicators related to tourism (Baretje and Defert index, Schneider index, Charvat index) we evaluate the current state of development of tourism in the studied area. These approaches are complemented by a historical-geographic analysis of the development of the territory, which completes the image of the limits of development of the Banská Bystrica self-governing region.