Sustainable tourism is a challenge for current and future generations in an effort to develop it in the spirit of maintaining a balance between its basic pillars: economic, social and environmental. The presented contribution aims to identify the differences of significant social, economic, and environmental indicators with the tourism indicator. The analysis was carried out at the level of NUTS 1 - the Slovak Republic and at the level of NUTS 3 - Prešov self-governing region. In the first phase of the research, 6 significant indicators were identified at the level of the Slovak Republic and at the level of the Prešov self-governing region 5 significant indicators with tourism indicators. Comparison of significant indicators was carried out using torque characteristics of shape, position, variability and through a set of tests - Mann Whitney test, Levene test, and Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. The differences between the indicators at the national and regional level were shown to be significant every time, regardless of whether the indicator was identified as significant, primarily in relation to the number of overnight stays at the national or regional level. The documented results point to the heterogeneity of the quality, and also the quantity of social, economic, and environmental indicators with the tourism indicator at the national and regional levels. It can be concluded that the sustainable development of tourism at different levels is conditioned by different indicators. This fact should be considered by the state economic policymakers and other tourism industry entities.

Natural healing resources in the form of mineral and thermal waters and climatic conditions, together with a rich history and modern medical procedures, rank Slovakia among the important European countries in the field of spas. At the same time, spa tourism has a significant economic benefit for the country. This study examined the impact of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on spa tourism in Slovakia. The Box-Jenkins methodology was used to model and forecast the time series for selected indicators. The analysis used monthly data on the capacity and performance of spa facilities for 2006–2019 and compared the forecast development for 2020–2021 with the reality as affected by the pandemic. Despite the high quality of the models, the methodology used did not take into account an unexpected event such as a pandemic. Therefore, the models were quite inaccurate and had little predictive value. At the same time, it is clear that the pandemic significantly affected spa tourism.

The COVID-19 pandemic and current security issues bring new aspects to the area of destination loyalty, which need to be incorporated into this model and comprehensively evaluated. The purpose of this study is to assess the significance of the model of tourist destination loyalty in combination with the safety indicators during the pandemic period among consumers in Slovakia. The research sample consists of 383 consumers from Slovakia, and data were collected during the COVID-19 period. The confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the sufficient validity and reliability of the model consisting of the indicators Safety, Cultural image, Environmental image, Socioeconomic image, Tourist satisfaction, and Destination loyalty. The research also assessed the significance of differences among the above indicators in terms of the categories Frequency of Travel, Length of Stay, Income, and Form of Tourism using ANOVA analysis. Large-scale differences have not been found, which indicates the model’s stability. PLS Path Modelling assessed the relationships between the individual categories of the indicators. The strongest relationship was found between Tourist satisfaction and Destination loyalty. The element Value for Money was added to the model, and it had a significant positive relation to Tourist satisfaction. The indicator Safety is also of significant importance to the model as was shown in several cases. Based on the results, it could be stated that the indicator Safety is an important element in the Socioeconomic image indicator.

Purpose: The aim of the contribution is to present the results of research that dealt with customers’ perception of the quality and range of services provided by spa companies in Slovakia.Design/methodology/approach: The primary data were obtained using a questionnaire which evaluated customer satisfaction with the services provided by spa companies in Slovakia at the beginning of 2020, before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The research sample consisted of 863 customers of spa companies. Importance-performance analysis and other methods of inductive statistics were used to process the results.Findings: Customer satisfaction with the quality of services provided is generally at a high level. Spa companies should pay more attention to the quality of catering services for patient groups A (the patient is reimbursed by the health insurance company for medical care, accommodation and meals at the spa) and B (the patient is only reimbursed by the health insurance company for healthcare) and to better planning of procedure dates for self-payers. When deciding on the choice of a spa company, the focus of the spa on the treatment of a specific diagnosis, and after this, the accessibility of transport, turned out to be the most common reasons.Research limitations/implications: Limits of IPA analysis related to the measurement of performance and also the importance of individual attributes based on respondent preferences. The length of the survey increases. Low discriminatory power of respondents who may consider all attributes important.Originality/value: The authors designed a novel questionnaire to identify the impact of individual factors on the level of services provided. Through IPA analysis, companies can precisely determine the services on which they should focus their attention in the future.

Customer reviews represent an important aspect when choosing accommodation from the customer’s point of view. The customer assumes that if the facility has a higher number of positive reviews from other customers, his experience with the services of the selected accommodation will be similar. This paper focuses on the importance of customer reviews of accommodation facilities in the context of V4 countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia). The aim of the paper was to analytically evaluate customer reviews of accommodation facilities in V4 countries as an important factor in the selection and reservation of accommodation services, such as gastronomic services, accommodation and additional services. We focused primarily on examining the differences in customer evaluations of accommodation facilities in these V4 countries. The findings highlight the importance of positive and negative reviews in influencing guest satisfaction and loyalty. At the end of the paper, we offer recommendations for accommodation facilities that are focused on positive as well as negative reviews.

Overtourism is a modern challenge in many popular tourist destinations. Social networks are also largely helping to spread this phenomenon, where destinations are presented to a large, dispersed, and younger audience of tourists. The aim of this paper is therefore to assess the age perception of overtourism in selected European destinations in the context of sustainable tourism. For the collection of primary data, we used an author's questionnaire, by which we surveyed from selected groups of Slovak respondents the perception of overtourism in our selected ten European destinations of overtourism. The analysis includes the most important findings from the questionnaire survey and the evaluation of research hypotheses. Selected mathematical-statistical methods were used, namely correlation analysis through the Spearman correlation coefficient and regression analysis through a simple linear regression model in the Gretl statistical program. The main findings include that there is a statistically significant association between the number of destinations visited and the age of the respondents, as well as that the number of overtourism destinations visited depends on the age of the respondents. This finding should be considered by destination management organizations when creating products aimed at younger visitors. Through various marketing activities, they could mainly focus on their travel behavior with an emphasis on the development of sustainable tourism.