Central and Eastern Europe and EU Accession 2004: Views of the Impact on Tourism

Abstract

is Professor of Tourism Management at Manchester Metropolitan University. In addition to three books, he has published many papers on tourist issues relating to culture, the arts, sexuality, destination image and Central and Eastern Europe. Danielle Allenis Project Associate for the Manchester Metropolitan University study of Central and Eastern Europe. She has experience in arts management, and has conducted extensive research on behalf of the International Tourism Centre at Manchester Metropolitan University. ABSTRACT The European Union (EU) was joined by several new members in 2004.Eight of these were Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries that had, at one time, had communist governments and centralised economies. This paper describes a study of tourist board offi cials ' views on the tourism outcomes of the accession and the factors infl uencing those outcomes. The offi cials represented the eight CEE countries, and, through individual interviews, their opinions were sought in order to obtain an ' informed ' view of post-2004. Predictions for tourism had been optimistic, and these interviewees confi rmed that the outcomes had been generally favourable. In particular, they considered that there had been an increased tourism infl ow (especially from the United Kingdom) and a shift in the tourism profi le towards tourists with wider interests and whose destinations within the countries were more spatially dispersed. Although publicity just before, and at the time of, accession had contributed to this, the most signifi cant infl uence was believed to have been participation in the EU internal air transport market. The accession of 2004 was, in many respects, less a step-change in economies and in tourism patterns than the culmination of adjustment processes that had been ongoing since the late 1980s. Nonetheless, it was marked by an uplift, the long-term effects of which have yet to be determined.

Would a single regional visa encourage tourist arrivals in southern Africa?

“…Tour operators were selected as the population because they are in close contact with potential and actual tourists and are regarded as knowledgeable on tourists' sentiments about a single visa for the SADC region, and also because they would be directly affected by the introduction of the Univisa. Hughes and Allen (2009) studied the impact of the EU accession of 2004 on the tourism industry of Central and Eastern Europe, using a sample of tourist board managers. They observe that an alternative approach would have been to obtain tourists' views, but they note that these views would have been more micro and individualistic and less well informed.…”

“…This would also have been the case for our research study. Hughes and Allen (2009) also note that the views of other key stakeholders in the tourism industry, such as tour operators, could offer another perspective, and our target population of tour operators was established on the basis of this suggestion. They further suggest that a study of the actual behaviour and reactions (as opposed the views) of UK tourists after the 2004 accession could provide some insight into whether or not, from a consumer viewpoint, the accession did influence travel (at least for this market), and this could possibly be a future research direction for our study.…”

“…A number of studies have investigated the effect that the Schengen agreement has had on the tourism industry of member states (Konečnik, 2002;Coles & Hall, 2005;Puczko & Ratz, 2006;Hughes & Allen, 2009). Konečnik (2002) found that EU membership may in itself produce tourism arrivals by raising awareness of the quality of these countries through publicity.…”

Country Brand I Feel Slovenia:First Response from Locals

“…Among many others, these include transition countries from Central and Eastern Europe, which were marked by the change from the communist regime to the formation of their own democratic state. Indeed, they have faced comparable challenges when marketing their country abroad (Hall, 2002;Hughes & Allen, 2009;Konecnik, 2004;Szondi, 2007).…”

Potential of city break clubbing tourism in Wrocław

“…Cheap flights and a dense network of connections offered by individual carriers made the trips to selected cities in the continent available for the majority of potential tourists (Ene, Shoffield, 2011;Grigolon et al, 2012;Hughes, Allen, 2009).…”