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Slovak Tourism Agency Sets Up Congress Tourism Department
Sunday 03 January 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, January 3 (TASR) - The Slovak Tourism Agency (SACR) has featured a new Congress Tourism Department since September 2009, despite the fact that Finance Minister Jan Pociatek (a Smer-SD nominee) thinks that congress tourism in Slovakia is largely nonexistent.
Also because of this, the minister supports the construction of the new entertainment-sports project Metropolis on the outskirts of Bratislava in Jarovce. According to him, the project, presented by the developer TriGranit in October 2009, "lays the groundwork for potential development of not only conference tourism that is currently lacking, but also recreational tourism". The project is expected to create 30,000 new jobs and attract over 5 million tourists to Slovakia annually.
"The Congress Tourism Department aims to turn Slovakia around from the position of one of the least known congress destinations in Europe to that of an interesting, attractive and competitive destination with plenty to offer for congress-goers," says SACR.
From an economic point of view, the Congress Tourism Department belongs among the most profitable long-term forms of tourism. It's also the segment of tourism that developed countries pay particular attention to and compete with each other for. The Czech National Tourism Agency also contains similar department within its organisational structure.
Congress tourism represents the most stable form of tourism, mostly by virtue of the fact that it isn't subject to economic pressures or seasonality. It brings in revenue, creates job opportunities and reinforces the state's prestige.
These effects are acknowledged also by representatives of Hotels and Restaurations Union (ZHR) and retailers. They concur that the domestic congress network needs to be developed as soon as possible in order to boost international promotion of Slovakia.
"The Metropolis project on the outskirts of Bratislava could start up congress tourism in Slovakia. Such a project can't be built in the Tatras or anywhere else in Slovakia, where infrastructure is lacking, only in Bratislava," ZHR Vice-president Radoslav Grega told TASR.
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