01-02 / 2021 / Volume 10

Language learning in tourism is increasingly embracing digital technologies for both synchronous and asynchronous content delivery and interaction. Blended learning combining online and traditional face-to-face forms as well as immersive forms such as 3D virtual worlds, where participants may travel as they learn from the comfort of their sofa, offer promising benefits, namely in times of pandemic and other turbulent events. Involving culturally and geographically distant tutors in the learning process may increase learners' motivation as well as satisfaction, provided that the course curricula and lesson plans utilize the potential by appropriate selection of activities. Despite all the potential benefits, however, troubles caused by the increased complexity of digitally enhanced courses may ruin learners' experience. The paper provides a conceptual basis for a systemic approach in planning, creating, and delivering courses, considering both technical and psychological aspects, which may assist in the prevention or mitigation of the challenges. To provide a relevant context, presentations of several language schools are briefly examined. The study of changes in their presentations between 2014 and 2021, in the light of web search trends, provides an additional glimpse into the evolution of the adoption and perception of relevant forms of education and technologies, further supporting the necessity of a systematic approach. Experience from three separate projects implementing innovative language courses collected both qualitatively and quantitatively via questionnaires is summarized, pointing out both successes and challenges.

Nowadays, health tourism has emerged as a multi-billion-dollar industry due to the fact that people have frequently traveled in order to improve their wellbeing. The internationalization of health tourism has also motivated production and consumption of healthcare services as well as increased variety of intermediaries and ancillary goods and services to support this sector. Although the significant benefits of health tourism, its actual contribution to economic growth and related issues have remained ambiguous. Therefore, this paper aims to: (i) Discuss the potential economic aspects of health tourism based on the published figures of major destinations in Asia Pacific with an international focus and (ii) Examine the economic risks related to health tourism that either directly or indirectly harm the process of economic growth. The results indicate that development of health tourism satisfies patients' demand for high quality healthcare at competitive prices, boosts the value of foreign exchange inflow and expands job opportunities. Health tourism services have become the subject of international earnings which has elevated economic opportunities of potential destinations. Besides that, increasing international health tourist flows with high income could evaluate costs of healthcare services, brain drain of healthcare professionals, inequitable health care access. Additionally, increases in international traveling might produce a new economic burden of communicable diseases, environmental degradation; brokers and organ transplants associated with black-market in some destinations. Hence, sustainability and responsibility have been considered as key criteria in the health tourism industry in order to improve tourists’ health performance and maximize benefits for local communities. Such economic analysis also enables us to evaluate benefits and losses from health tourism development and track the balance of trade around this economic sector.

The enormous growth of research and development is accompanied by growing number of scientific publications in recent decades. These publications are collected and processed by a number of digital libraries. Though digital libraries provide basic search tools, more advanced methods such as visualization and visual analysis can be implemented by using special software only. This article presents the possibilities of visual analyzing content of digital libraries using the CiteViz tool developed in Klapka (2013) and shows the implementation using of the Scopus database. Results of testing the implemented solution in selected areas of sustainable tourism and demonstration of the possibilities of the implemented solution are presented at the end of the article.

In recent years, social tourism has been strongly promoted in the EU, including the travel of people with various types of disabilities. The present study analyses travel motivation and barriers to travel for visually impaired people. This analysis is based on several years of research at the Faculty of Informatics and Management, University of Hradec Králové, Czech Republic, then on the personal travel experience of a visually impaired person and the practice of a rehabilitation instructor at Tyfloservis, o.p.s (charitable trust), Hradec Králové, an organization supporting independent living of visually impaired people. The study is also based on interviews with ten visually impaired respondents and their travel experience. SARS-COV-2 is also included as a current barrier to travel.

Growing tourism in environmentally protected areas brings pressure not only on nature and ecosystems, but also on their management. This paper focuses on main conflicts connected with transport and mobility of tourists and environment protection in these areas, and tools to solve the identified problems. The research is based on data obtained from structured interviews with representatives of administrations of 26 PLAs (protected landscape areas) and 4 NPs (national parks) in the Czech Republic. Another 45 key stakeholders were interviewed in three case study areas (PLA Jizerské hory, PLA Moravský kras, and NP České Švýcarsko together with PLA Labské pískovce). Our results indicate that sustainable mobility of visitors and sustainable tourism have a high potential, but that a system supporting relevant economic activities, together with good information and promotion, should be created. The paper also suggests mobility plans for these areas as a promising strategic tool.