<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Urban tourism has become a significant phenomenon of tourism over the last decade. the importance of urban tourism has grown mainly due to the development of transport and information technologies. rapid advancement of low cost airlines and reduction of administrative barriers owing to the expansion of the schengen area caused not only the development of a number of urban destinations, including Prague, but also the growth of new source markets. this paper compares the development of urban tourism in Prague with the situation in Vienna and Budapest in the last decade. the aim of the paper is to describe the main trends of tourism development and the geographic distribution of tourism in Prague in comparison with culturally and historically similar cities - Vienna and Budapest. the analysis shows high load of tourism in Prague and its strong concentration in the old city. this causes congestion in the city centre and an extrusion of residential functions by the functions of tourism. As a result, a tourism ghetto has been formed in the centre of Prague and the urban society has been increasingly dualized.</p></abstract>

Urban tourism has become a significant phenomenon of tourism over the last decade. the importance of urban tourism has grown mainly due to the development of transport and information technologies. rapid advancement of low cost airlines and reduction of administrative barriers owing to the expansion of the schengen area caused not only the development of a number of urban destinations, including Prague, but also the growth of new source markets. this paper compares the development of urban tourism in Prague with the situation in Vienna and Budapest in the last decade. the aim of the paper is to describe the main trends of tourism development and the geographic distribution of tourism in Prague in comparison with culturally and historically similar cities - Vienna and Budapest. the analysis shows high load of tourism in Prague and its strong concentration in the old city. this causes congestion in the city centre and an extrusion of residential functions by the functions of tourism. As a result, a tourism ghetto has been formed in the centre of Prague and the urban society has been increasingly dualized.

Tourist Intensity in Capital Cities in Central Europe: Comparative Analysis of Tourism in Prague, Vienna and Budapest

Department of Social Geography and Regional Development, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic

Czech Journal of Tourism

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Urban tourism has become a significant phenomenon of tourism over the last decade. the importance of urban tourism has grown mainly due to the development of...

Tourist Intensity in Capital Cities in Central Europe: Comparative Analysis of Tourism in Prague, Vienna and Budapest

Published Online: Dec 10, 2014

Page range: 5 - 26

Accepted: May 30, 2014

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/cjot-2014-0001

© 2014 Veronika Dumbrovská and Dana Fialová

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.