Atraktívnosť Slovenska pre vybraný segment návštevníkov

The article focuses on the tourist destination attractiveness. Foreign literature offers four main approaches to the tourist destination attractiveness research. Geographical and presentational approaches are oriented towards supply side. The first offers objective, the second subjective regard. Economic and perceptive approaches are focused on the demand side. Economic one shows objective facts, perceptive approach offers subjective potential tourists assessment of the destination. None of the approaches is complex and therefore is necessary to accordingly interface them. The aim of the paper is to examine and assess the subjective attractiveness of Slovakia (which means the attractiveness evaluated from the presentation and perceptive approaches) for the selected segment of visitors. In our case it will be a European Francophone tourist market. It consists of four Western and Central Europe countries, where French language is official language. Belgium, France, Luxembourg and Switzerland are the outgoing tourist countries with high living standards and high intensity of travel that means markets with high potential. The article is based on secondary data sources (web pages, tourist guide books, Slovakia tourist board promotional materials) as well as on primary sources (interview with 40 tourist experts and information interveners from European francophone countries). Regarding to the presentational approach, research discovers that Slovakia is on the European francophone market presented like a few attractive tourist destination. Relatively the most favorable information about Slovakia tourist destination for potential French speaking visitors is diffused by web pages. As regards perceptive approach, European francophone market doesn’t have enough information about Slovakia and apprehends it like barely few attractive. According to the investigation, Slovakia tourist destination attractiveness in terms of subjectively evaluated offer is higher than its attractiveness in terms of subjectively evaluated demand. The biggest deficiency is the low availability of information about Slovakia as a tourist destination for French-speaking countries, which is crucial in visitors deciding where to travel and stay.