01 / 2019 / Volume 8

This paper investigates the perceptions and practices of managers of the tourism sector with regards to change management. It has been suggested that change management is an inevitable element for tourism businesses to increase their speed of response to market and competitive changes. Logically, it can be argued that tourism managers are best placed to initiate and facilitate this change.  The primary data were obtained through a survey, carried out in tourist agencies in the Republic of North Macedonia and evaluated by using the tools of descriptive statistics and the methods of comparison, induction, deduction and synthesis. The key findings indicate that the majority of the respondents were familiar with the term change management and they implemented the change management practices. However, work still needs to be done to help the remaining companies to understand the necessity of changing the paradigm. Regarding the practical implications, this paper can serve as a stepping stone for future research that can uncover the potential, experiences and outcomes of change management in the tourism sector in the country.

Competitiveness of the country is a very important factor, especially in the area of tourism. Tourism is one of the most important and most rapidly growing economy sectors, which faces the challenges and possibilities of globalization. The travel and tourism sector is widely recognized as an important factor for the regional development. This enables the country to be successful in the world market and for tourists. To measure the competitiveness of travel and tourism, we used various indexes. One of them is the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index, published by the World Economic Forum. The aim of this paper is to analyse the travel and tourism competitiveness in selected countries. According to their performance, we identified the best travel and tourism country. In addition, we focused on strengths and weaknesses of the analysed countries to improve their competitiveness position in the future.

There are not many European countries with such a significant share of the capital city on tourism (especially incoming tourism) as the Czech Republic. The number of foreign tourists grows significantly in the Czech Republic and so does the share of Prague. All marketing campaigns aiming to get foreign tourists beyond Prague ended inefficiently. The share of Prague on the number of tourists accommodated in standard accommodation facilities per the total number of tourists in the Czech Republic is 62%. Prague is also the only region with a higher number of foreign tourists in comparison with the number of the Czech tourists (85% of tourists in Prague are foreigners). Furthermore, the offer of sharing economy in the field of accommodation in Prague also exceeds the offer of other Czech cities. Prague is therefore struggling with overtourism in some attractive areas and must deal with unsustainable development.

The increasing importance of tourism and the growing number of tourists put pressure on tourist destinations. To support competitive and sustainable tourism development, it is advisable to focus on alternative forms of tourism in order to diversify tourism options in the destinations. From this point of view, it seems appropriate to deal with the issue of ‘Special Interest Tourism’ as a form of ‘alternative’, ‘ethical’, or ‘environmentally responsible’ tourism. The paper reflects the urgent need for sustainable tourism research. The aim of the paper is to provide the introduction and overview of the issue and outline perspectives that may open the way to future, more systematic research. The situation in the Czech Republic is based on the mapping of the current spatial distribution of selected special interest tourism attractions. The findings identify the possibilities for diversification of general (mass) tourism offers. The metadata from the Czech and foreign metainformation systems and databases are used.

The purpose of this paper is to make conceptual analysis support of the travelling of people with disabilities by using mobile technologies. Based on the conducted qualitative research, an analysis of the requirements for LBSs (local based services) to support the safe travel of people with health disabilities in the context of price and energy consumption optimization has been done. It was accompanied by the conceptual analysis of the use of the LBS to support the safe travel for people with disabilities in both individual and collective tourism. The concept of the application, which will fulfil all discussed requirements, was created. It is based on the analysis of the requirements for safe travel of disabled persons, analysis of available mobile technologies, and analysis of dynamic health assessment options by using neural networks. The presented concept includes the key components of a solution: procedures for reactive and preventive care and individualization of the system settings according to the specific needs.