The security issues around the world represent an opportunity to promote domestic tourism as well as to attract more foreign tourists to Slovakia, said Slovak Tourism Association (ZCR) president Marek Harbuľák on Tuesday. He spoke in view of the fact that many Europeans who used to visit northern Africa and the Near East and elsewhere are reconsidering their plans due to security threats. Slovakia can thus, for instance, attract tourists from Germany, France and Italy. "It's an opportunity we need to grasp properly", said Harbuľák. He also warned that the migration crisis could also have a negative impact on the functioning of the Schengen area. "Any change to, or, God forbid, the total scrapping of the Schengen area would have a negative impact on tourism not only in Slovakia but throughout the EU", said Harbuľák. According to ZCR, some countries have already started to draw up maps of higher risk countries. Germany labelled, for example, France, Spain, Turkey, Egypt and Libya to be countries of increased security risks. Among the countries with medium security risks are Morocco, Greece, Italy and Tunisia, according to the German Tourism Association (DTV). Slovakia was accorded the status of a country with a low security risk, along with Bulgaria, Croatia and Portugal. Harbuľák also recalled that tourists tend to have a short-term memory and often forget about issues. This is a good thing, he added, as tourism is able to recover quickly as a result.
According to various statistics, 2015 was a good year for tourism. The United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) said that more than 1.2 billion people travelled as tourists in 2015, an increase of 50 million year-on-year. Over the first eleven months of 2015 there were more than four million people holidaymaking in Slovakia, which represents an increase of almost 16 percent year on year. "It's the highest number in Slovakia's history", said ZCR vice-president Jan Svoboda, adding that some 60 percent of all these tourists were Slovaks.
