Management of Quality, Satisfaction, and Loyalty of Rural Destinations

Introduction

Tourism in the Czech Republic has been observing an upward trend in terms of consumption since 2011. In 2011 it was 208 685 million CZK. In 2019, it was almost 100 million more, reaching 308 242 million CZK (CSO, 2021). Due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, consumption in the Czech Republic decreased to the value of 139 000 million CZK (CzechTourism, 2020). The Tourism Satellite Account, which has been collecting data on tourism performance in the Czech Republic since 2003, has never recorded such a low value. The growing importance of tourism is evidenced by the increase in the number of people employed in tourism, which can be observed since 2014. In 2014, 225,006 people were employed in tourism. In 2019, the figure was 239,649 persons. Employment grew mainly in catering establishments, accommodation establishments and rail transport (CSO, 2021). In 2020, the number of employed persons fell to 127,000. The largest falls were recorded in the Prague, Karlovy Vary and South Moravia regions (Czech Tourism, 2020).

The chapter is devoted to rural tourism in the Czech Republic. Rural tourism is specific in terms of the environment in which it takes place, its environmental friendliness, its sustainability, but also because it mainly attracts domestic visitors who come to the destination individually. It is thus a less studied sector because it does not generate the same income from the national economy perspective as mass urban tourism does, in which foreign visitors also participate. In 2019, incoming tourism generated 57% of all tourism revenues in the Czech Republic (CSO, 2021). Typical forms of rural tourism are ecotourism and agro-tourism. However, there are many more forms that are implemented within rural destinations, but again, they are not as frequently mentioned. These include, for example, hippo-tourism, cycling, gastro-tourism, wine tourism or the very typical cottage and chalet tourism in the Czech Republic.

Rural tourism is not separately monitored statistically in the Czech Republic. Since it is a significant part of domestic tourism, statistical data can be partly drawn from this sector. The tourist consumption in terms of domestic tourism has been growing since 2011, from 61 368 million CZK to 91 809 million CZK. Tourist consumption includes the use of TA/TO services, accommodation, boarding, transport, goods etc. (CSO, 2021). The marketing agency CzechTourism (2021) has carried out domestic tourism tracking in the years 2029 and 2020. As part of this tracking, they discovered the following tourist trends: increased interest in walking tourism (from 40% in 2019 increasing to 45% in 2020), increased interest in visits to natural attractions (from 28% to 35%) and an increase in visits to relatives (from 28% to 34%). Increased interest in walking tourism and natural attractions was also noted among day-trippers. Not only positive impacts have been recorded. Negative impacts include a drop in the number of visitors to cultural monuments, which is, however, mainly due to their closure, which was ordered by the state. However, the drop was only 4%, from 40% in 2029 to 36% in 2020. The low percentage of change is related to the fact that cultural monuments were opened in the summer season and visitors tried to take full advantage of this reopening.