No abstract

Competences are the most important career capital a university graduate can have. The objective of the paper is to determine which competences acquired at tourism degree programmes affect students’ self-assessment regarding their own competitive advantage on the labour market. The data was collected during a nationwide diagnostic survey (N = 476) carried out at ten Polish universities among students finishing their tourism degree courses. Principal component analysis allowed us to identify a set of competences that have a significant impact on the students’ perception of their chances of finding employment in the tourism industry. These are: ability to cope with challenges and stress; writing and speaking skills in a foreign language; public speaking; planning and implementation of subject-specific projects; ability to conduct subject-specific research and perseverance. The higher the assessment of each of the above, the more confident of their competitive advantage on the labour market the students were.

Tourism is an important means of income transfer from wealthy countries to less affluent ones, which diminishes differences in development levels between the two regions. By satisfying the various needs and boosting socio­economic development, tourism directly and indirectly influences the levels of GDP. In Croatia, tourism contributes a significant 15.7% of the country’s GDP. Croatia has rather a wide range of accommodation with a total capacity of approx. 950.000 beds in hotels (12%), holiday homes (6%), campsites (23%) and private accommodation (44%). The latter, typical for Croatia, is linked to the common practice of owning weekend houses. The largest numbers of international tourists stay in Istria (nearly 25%) and Primorje­Gorski Kotar (20%). Relatively high percentages of visitors from abroad are also present in the counties of Split­Dalmatia (15.5 %), Zadar (9.8%), Dubrovnik­Neretva (8.8%) and Sibenik­Knin (7.5%). Thanks to its natural and cultural attractions, Croatia has become an important tourist region in Europe. In 2008 it was visited by 11.26 mln tourists, mostly from Germany, Italy and Slovenia.

Purpose. The aim of the paper is to point to the most important research areas within our scientific knowledge regarding the group-nature of the consumer on the tourism market, whose role is very often played by families. Method. The paper is a review and discussion and the most important research methods used are critical literature review and inductive reasoning. Findings. The most important issues which need intensive scientific research are: diversification of consumer behaviour of families belonging to different types, including patchworking families becoming more and more popular; the impact of demographical changes on families’ consumer behaviour in big cities; roles of particular family members in decision processes in light of changing demographic conditions. Research and conclusions limitations. The paper presents the state of scientific knowledge valid for the beginning of 2018 and the scientific gaps described in the paper will probably be bridged successively by prochain publications. Practical implications. This paper dealing with scientific knowledge does not offer readymade solutions for the tourism business, however, the topic of families as consumers on the tourism market itself should be interesting for the widely understood tourism industry as a whole. Originality. Contemporary works dealing with families on the tourism market are rather concentrated on solving particular, detailed problems and not complex and wide scope diagnosis of the state of affairs have been published so far. Type of paper. Review and discussion paper.

Dynamiczny rozwój turystyki w wielu regionach świata powoduje wzrost konkurencji, co z kolei prowadzi do wielu zmian w ofertach turystycznych. Turystyka jest alternatywą dla innych rodzajów działalności gospodarczej. Dotyczy to jednostek przestrzennych o różnej wielkości, w tym miast, dla których funkcja turystyczna może stać się mechanizmem lokalnego rozwoju oraz ochrony dziedzictwa kulturowego i naturalnego. Jako wyjątkowe atrakcje turystyczne coraz częściej postrzega się festiwale i uroczystości publiczne oraz wiele innych specjalnych wydarzeń, tworzących wizerunek miejsca. Głównym celem niniejszego artykułu jest przedstawienie potencjału turystycznego miasta historycznego oraz możliwości dalszego rozwoju ruchu turystycznego w świetle aktualnych tendencji światowego rynku turystycznego. Artykuł zawiera również próbę analizy struktury produktu turystycznego miasta Pistoia dokonaną na podstawie jego położenia jako sąsiada tak dużych ośrodków turystycznych, jak Florencja czy Piza.