Spatial Inequalities and Recovery Patterns in Central European Tourism After the Pandemic
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33032/acr.7007Keywords:
crisis, recovery, regional disparities, resilience, tourismAbstract
In the decade preceding the COVID-19 pandemic, global international tourism showed continuous growth, but the 2020 crisis highlighted the sector's extraordinary sensitivity and vulnerability, fundamentally shaking the industry. Our study examines the patterns of tourism recovery in regions of four Central European countries: Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia. The research is based on regional-level data from the period between 2018 and 2022, with a particular focus on the development of overnight stays and tourism capacities. According to our hypothesis, tourist destinations and regions with more pronounced seasonal fluctuations are more sensitive to crises due to their characteristics, yet – thanks to their favourable localization conditions – they may also be capable of quicker recovery. We used quantile maps to represent spatial inequalities for the following variables: domestic and foreign overnight stays in tourist accommodations, changes compared to the two previous years and 2019, number of overnight stays, number of beds, and number of accommodations. We used clustering models (hierarchical, K-means) to determine the spatial pattern of the observations. According to the analysis results, the regions' tourism performance showed significant spatial differences in the post-COVID-19 period. Some of the analysed regions had a more dynamic recovery capacity: in more than half of the regions, the number of overnight stays in 2022 exceeded the 2020 figure, while in 40% of them, it did not even reach the pre-COVID level of 2019. It was found that the recovery was faster in the regions that had experienced a significant decline due to COVID-19. A common characteristic of the regions is that areas dependent on foreign visitor traffic experienced the greatest decline, while regions relying on domestic tourism showed a quicker recovery.
References
Barcza, A – Csapó, J. – Hinek, M. – Marton, G. – Alpek, L. (2023): Examining Seasonality in Tourism with Special Reference to the Recent Effects of Covid-19 – The Case of the Sopron-Fertő Tourism Destination (Hungary). European Countryside, 15(2), 243–258. https://doi.org/10.2478/euco-2023-0013
Behringer, Z. – Kulcsár, N. – Hinek, M. – Tevely, T. (2023): Turisztikai mobilitásváltozás a Covid19-pandémia alatt és után, különös tekintettel a közlekedési eszköz- és desztinációválasz-tásra. Turizmus Bulletin, 23(3), 26–36. https://doi.org/10.14267/turbull.2023v23n3.3
Bieliková, H. – Palenčíková, Z. (2021): Sustainable Tourism Development in Times of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Case Study of Slovakia. In Demir, M. –Dalgıç, A. –Ergen F. (szerk.) Handbook of Research on the Impacts and Implications of COVID-19 on the Tourism Industry. IGI Global Scientific Publishing. pp. 823–842. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-8231-2.ch040
Cheer, J. M. – Ting, H. – Leong, C. M. (2021): Responsible tourism: a new era of responsibility? Journal of Responsible Tourism Management, 1(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.47263/JRTM.01-01-01
Czirfusz, M. (2021): A COVID-19-válság és a térbeli munkamegosztás változásai Magyarorszá-gon. Területi Statisztika, 61(3), 320–336. https://doi.org/10.15196/ts610303
Cochrane, J. (2010): The Sphere of Tourism Resilience. Tourism Recreation Research, 35(2), 173–185. https://10.1080/02508281.2010.11081632
Costantino, S. – Cracolici, M. F. – Elhorst, J. P. (2023): A spatial origin-destination approach for the analysis of local tourism demand in Italy. Papers in Regional Science, 102, 393–419. https://doi.org/10.1111/pirs.12726
Csapó J. – Lőrincz K. (2020): A turizmus gazdaságban betöltött szerepe és irányai Magyarorszá-gon a COVID-19 előtt és után. Geometodika, 4(3). pp. 5–16.
Debreceni, J. – Fekete-Frojimovics, Zs. (2023): Understanding Resilience in Tourism and Hospi-tality. Regional and Business Studies, 15(1), 5–18. https://doi.org/10.33568/rbs.4388
Duro, J. A. – Perez-Laborda, A. – Fernandez, M. (2022): Territorial tourism resilience in the COVID-19 summer. Annals of Tourism Research Empirical Insights, 3(1), 100039. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annale.2022.100039
El-Said, O. – Aziz, H. (2022): Virtual tours a means to an end: An analysis of virtual tours’ role in tourism recovery post COVID-19. Journal of Travel Research, 61(3), 528–548.
Eurostat (2025): A turizmus ágazat statisztikai adatbázisai. Online elérhetőség: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/explore/all/icts?lang=en&subtheme=tour&display=list&sort=category
Falk, M. T. – Hagsten, E. & Lin, X. (2022): Domestic tourism demand in the North and the So-uth of Europe in the Covid-19 summer of 2020. The Annals of Regional Science, 69, 537–553. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00168-022-01147-5
Fenz, G. – Stix, H. – Vondra, K. (2021): Austrian tourism sector badly hit by COVID-19 pan-demic. Monetary Policy & the Economy, (20/Q4-21/Q1), 41–63.
Folke, C. – Carpenter, S. – Elmqvist, T. – Gunderson, L. – Holling, C. S. – Walker, B. (2002): Resilience and sustainable development: building adaptive capacity in a world of transformati-ons. AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment, 31(5), 437–440.
Gaki, E. – Koufodontis, N. I. (2022): Regional tourism resilience and recovery in times of crises. GeoJournal of Tourism and Geosites, 40(1), 259–266. https://doi.org/10.30892/gtg.40131-827
Gyurkó, Á. – Bujdosó, Z. – Hamza, Cs. (2023): Magyarország idegenforgalmi helyzetértékelése 2004-2022 között a regionális különbségek tükrében. Acta Carolus Robertus, 13(2), 50–66. https://doi.org/10.33032/acr.4887
Hoschek, M. – Mészáros, K. – Németh, M. (2022): Fenntartható aktív turizmus In: Széles, Zs. – Resperger, R. – Szőke, T. M. (szerk.) A kriptovaluták szerepe a fenntartható gazdaságban : XVI. Sopro-ni Pénzügyi Napok pénzügyi, adózási és számviteli szakmai és tudományos konferencia, Sopron, 2022. szeptember 28–30., Sopron : Soproni Egyetem Kiadó (2022) 518 p. pp. 442–458., 17 p. ISBN 978-963-334-451-4 http://publicatio.uni-sopron.hu/2675/1/1_SPN-2022-Konfkotet-Hoschek-et_al-442-458.pdf
Holling, C. S. (1973): Resilience and stability of ecological systems. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 4., 1–23.
Magyar Turisztikai Ügynökség (2021): Turizmus 2.0. Stratégia. Magyar Turisztikai Ügynökség hon-lapja, https://mtu.gov.hu/dokumentumok/NTS2030_Turizmus2.0-Strategia.pdf
Kadiu, A. (2021): Building up tourism resilience after COVID-19. The case of Albania. Economy & Business Journal, 15(1), 392–400.
Karagöz, D. – Günay Aktaş, S. – Mert Kantar, Y. (2022): Spatial analysis of the relationship bet-ween tourist attractions and tourist flows in Turkey. European Journal of Tourism Research, 31, 3102. https://doi.org/10.54055/ejtr.v31i.2745
Kökény, L. – Kenesei, Z. (2022): A turisztikai fogyasztók magatartásának vizsgálata a Covid19-pandémia első hullámának árnyékában. Socio.hu Társadalomtudományi Szemle, 12(4), 30–53. https://doi.org/10.18030/socio.hu.2022.4.30
Matei, N.A. – García-León, D. – Dosio, A. – Batista e Silva, F. – Ribeiro Barranco, R. – Císcar Martínez, J.C. (2023): Regional impact of climate change on European tourism demand, Publications Offi-ce of the European Union, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2760/899611
Pascariu, G. C. – Ibănescu, B. C. – Nijkamp, P. – Kourtit, K. (2021): Tourism and Economic Resilience: Implications for Regional Policies. Tourism and Regional Science, 53, 129–147. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3623-3_8
Pogácsás, P. – Szepesi, B. (2023): A koronavírus hatása a magyar kis- és középvállalkozásokra. Vezetéstudomány / Budapest Management Review, 54(2), 25–39. https://doi.org/10.14267/veztud.2023.02.03
Sharma, G. D. – Thomas, A. – Paul, J. (2021): Reviving tourism industry post-COVID-19: A resilience-based framework. Tourism Management Perspectives, 37, 100786. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmp.2020.100786
Toubes, Diego R. – Noelia Araújo Vila, – Jose A. Fraiz Brea (2021): Changes in consumption patterns and tourist promotion after the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research, 16(5), 1332–1352. https://doi.org/10.3390/jtaer16050075
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Turnai Zsófia, Horváthné Kovács Bernadett, Koncz Gábor, Barna Róbert
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
