Tourism in Slovakia
Tourism in Slovakia
Tourism objects
Today, Slovakia is a standard EU country for tourists with all the necessary facilities. Tourism and food in Slovakia remains relatively cheap as compared to western Europe, for example, but prices are currently adapting very quickly.
Slovakia’s numerous mountain ski resorts, historic cities, caves, wooden churches, national parks and other nature objects are popular tourist destinations.
Some 40 percent of Slovakia is forested. Slovakia’s forests are home to foxes, rabbits, squirrels, weasels, and muskrats; wild boar and wolves are occasionally seen in remote mountain areas. As one of few good heritages from the former Communist regime, Slovakia still features an extraordinarily high percentage of national park and other protected area spaces (see National parks of Slovakia). There are hardly any mountain ranges and areas not being under some kind of protection.
One of Slovakia's main tourist attractions are the alpine Tatra Mountains (see Tatra, High Tatras, Vysoké Tatry and Low Tatras for details), the highest part of the Carpathians. They feature many rare plant and animal species and offer numerous ski resorts, mountain wandering and mountaineering opportunities. The High Tatras have been final candidate for the Winter Olympic Games several times.
The rivers and streams in the numerous mountains of Slovakia are often rough waters and are used for rafting and other water activities. Using boats, kayaks, canoes is also very popular in Slovakia (and the country has won many of its Olympic medails in these fields).
Slovakia is said to be the country with the highest number of caves per capita (see Caves of Slovakia) and wth the highest number of fortified castles (many of which are in ruins however) per capita in the world. New caves are being discovered permanently, 13 caves are open to the public, the longest one of which is 9 km long. Some of them are on the UNESCO list. As for the castles, every larger settlement has or has had some kind of castle in Slovakia. The best known castles are the Bojnice Castle (site of many international movies, especially fairy tales) Spiš Castle (the largest fortified castle in Europe, on the UNESCO list), the Orava Castle, the Bratislava Castle (some 4 000 years old) and the Devín Castle ruins (very old, as well). The ruins of the Čachtice Castle are best know for the legend of the Bloody Lady Elisabeth Báthory.
Due to Slovakia's central position in Europe and the country's past (part of the Kingdom of Hungary, of the Habsburg monarchy and of Czechoslovakia), most towns (cities) are typical of the former Habsburg monarchy area and are rather cosmopolitan. A historic center, at least one square, has been preserved in almost every town in Slovakia. Larger historic centers can be found especially in Bratislava, Košice, Banská Štiavnica, and Levoča. Most town centers have been reconstructed in recent years.
Slovakia has also become world known for its numerous mineral springs (the mineral water offer is very rich in the stores, consequently) and spas, the best known one being that of Piešťany. Slovakias spas include:
- balneological spas: Bojnice, Brusno, Dudince, Lúčky, Piešťany, Sklené Teplice, Sliač, Smrdáky, Trenčianske Teplice, Turčianske Teplice
- climatic spas: Nový Smokovec, Štós, Štrbské pleso, Tatranské Matliare, High Tatras
- mixed: Bardejovské Kúpele, Číž, Nimnica, Rajecké Teplice and Vyšné Ružbachy
Shopping is possible both in large shopping malls (in larger cities, new ones being built permanently), municipal markets or small shops. Prices of imported products are generally the same as in the neigbouring countries, prices of local products and services, especially food, are much lower.
Slovakia is also rich in Slovak folk culture (songs, dances, folk art, folk costumes and see e.g fujara) and folk architecture. A complete original historic villages however have been preserved only in rare cases, such as in Vlkolínec, Brhlovce, Osturňa, Podbiel, Stará Hora in Sebechleby, Čičmany, Plavecký Peter, Špania dolina, Veľké Leváre and Ždiar.
The “Dielo” shops network offers sells works of Slovak artists and craftsmen. These shops can be found in larger towns. Typical souvenirs from Slovakia are dolls dressed in folk costumes, ceramics, cristal glas objects, carved wooden figures, črpáks (a wooden pitchers), fujaras (a folk instrument on the UNESCO list) and a valaška (a decorated folk hatchet) and above all products made from corn husks (- especially small figures) and wire. These souvenirs can be found especially in shops of the ULUV (the Center of the Folk Art Production).
Very precious – and expensive to maintain - structures are the numerous wooden churches (i.e complete churches built of wood only) of northern and northern-eastern Slovakia. They were built in early modern times (since the 15th century) by Catholics, Lutherans and eastern rite churches.
Besides these specific churchus, numerous old sacral buildings of stone can be found in virtually any village and town in Slovakia. Usually they stem from the Baroque period, some however stem from the Great Moravian period (9th century).
Food and drinks
Slovakia is also known for its high quality wines and popular beer brands. The most popular wines are those from the Tokaj, Little Carpathians, Nitra, Topoľčany and Záhorie regions; Hubert, a highly rated Slovak sect, and “Karpatské Brandy Špeciál”. Typical Slovak liqueurs are Demänovka and Horec, popular Slovak aperitifs are slivovica (plum brandy) and borovička (the juniper berry brandy)fs. The most popular beer brands are Topvar, Zlatý Bažant, Šariš, Corgoň, Gemer and Martiner.
A very popular high-quality chocolate brand with a long tradition are the Figaro chocolates. Cheese and cheese products are other typical Slovak specialties (korbáčik, parenicas, oštiepok, bryndza).
Objects on the UNESCO World Heritage List
Objects currently on the list:
- Banská Štiavnica (former major mining town)
- Spiš Castle (medieval fortified castle)
- Bardejov (town)
- Vlkolínec (folk architecture)
- caves:
Proposed objects:
- Tokaj vineyard area
- wooden churches (see above)
- Chatam Sofer memorial in Bratislava (remnants of an old Jewish cemetery, graves of important rabbis)
- 14th to 15th century churches with mediaeval mural paintings in Gemer and Abov
- Limes Romanus objects in Rusovce and Iža (Roman Empire period)
- the anti-Turkish fortress in Komárno (the first bastion fortress in the European inland)
- the concept of a lentil-shaped ground plan of Košice’s historical centre
- the historical town of Levoča
- Carpathian wild forests (protected landscape which are an International biosphere reserve)
- nature reserves of the High Tatras (Northern Slovakia), in particular the national park
- the karst valleys of Slovakia
- the Danube natural and cultural area (a vast system of river tributaries)
- the mycological flora of Bukovské vrchy in north-eastern Slovakia (the largest complexes of original beech and fir forests in Europe with many rare and endangered species of plants and animals)
- the geyser in Herľany (the geyser discharges four thousand litres of water every 30 to 33 hours)
- historical sites of Great Moravia (Kopčany – the St Margita of Antiochia Church and Ducové –Kostolec)
History
Tourism in Slovakia began to develop in the mid-19th century when travellers started to visit the High Tatra and Low Tatra mountains. The first accommodation and catering facilities were built in the late 19th century and this development accelerated after 1918 (creation of Czechoslovakia). The number of tourists grew steadily from 270 000 domestic + 45 000 foreign tourists in 1926 to 546 000 domestic + 82 000 foreign tourists in 1936. The development of the tourist industry slowed down during World War II. After the introduction of the communist regime in 1948, westeners were no longer welcomed in Czechoslovakia, which naturally caused material losses to the tourism industry. Tourism was controlled by the communist regime ideologically, politically and economically, and the regime failed to invest sufficiently in tourism facilities and infrastructures (with the expception of the High Tatra region). On the other hand, however, since most Czechoslovak citizens were virtually prohibited from travelling abroad (especially to the west), the regime had to provide more (usually only mediocre) recreational facilities for the population in its own country: In 1989 (at the end of the Communist regime), there were 988 accommodation facilities (389 hotels, 17 motels, 200 hostels, 82 camping sites, 130 cottage camps and other) with 145 822 beds in Slovakia. These were used by some 3.9 m tourists (956 702 from abroad). The biggest tourist centers included Bratislava, High Tatras, Košice, Banská Bystrica and Piešťany. The number of travel agencies (ČEDOK, Tatratour, Slovakotourist, Javorina etc.) was limited by the government.
After the fall of Communism in 1989, Slovakia's tourism industry began to adapt to the condition of market economy. The facilities were gradually privatized and new facilities have been built, also with the help of foreign capital. Dozens of new travel agencies have been established, the number of tourist from abroad and income from tourism increasaed considerably. Passive tourism (Slovaks travelling abroad) increased considerably, as well – in the 1990s Slovaks travelled predominantly to the neighbouring countries and Croatia, since the late 1990s the foreign destinations of Slovaks shift to major worlds tourist destinations (Egypt, France, Indonesia etc.).
In 2004 the country received 1,401,189 visitors from abrod. It is getting quite popular for EU citizens since Slovakia's EU entry in 2004 to buy historical objects (small castles etc.) in Slovakia and reconstruct them.