Assessment of the demand for cultural ecosystem services in Local Action Group association of municipalities: a case study from Slovakia

This paper deals with the assessment of the demand for cultural using participatory mapping in the Local Action Group (LAG) ties of the White Carpathians and Trenčín Microregion and the Bošáčka vakia. CES as non-material services provided by ecosystems are development. While, tourism is not very developed in the case study of residents and visitors to the area were investigated and compared. per is to map the demand for CES, both from the perspective of and to propose appropriate forms of tourism for LAG municipalities ferent demand for CES. We collected the data using a questionnaire locations in the territory of the LAG from July to October in 2023, target groups (n=100 and n=108). Participatory mapping helped to locations in the country. Based on the results, we established a tance of locations in terms of tourism interest. The survey shows is influenced by the availability of the location as well as the about the area. In the case of attractive locations, both residents to tolerate the lack of tourism services such as small number of ing facilities, incomplete information or worse transport that high demand for CES prevails among residents and visitors in residents identified more locations where demand for CES occurs. search are of considerable importance in the implementation of the tem services in the territory development documents, since on their to strengthen and especially optimise the development of tourism

Highlights for public administration, management and planning:

This paper assesses demand for cultural ecosystem services (CES) tory mapping within specific regions of Slovakia, with a focus velopment in less-visited areas.