Travel and Tourism (Essay)

Big hole in Slovakia


Why do people travel? In the past, they have searched for food, or ran away from danger. But the time's changed. Nowadays, we travel to do business, go to school or just to relax. It isn't different in Slovakia. The conditions for travelling are limited from either the regional as from the global sight of view. If the structure of transport in our country won't make any progress in the near future, then as a result of that, Slovakia will have big economic problems.

In the western european countries, the situation relating to the transport is much better than in Slovakia. The reasons of this fact might be various. The first reason might be the result of exploiting the german nation after winning the Second World War. The sanctions and penalties applied on Germany have provided them huge financial injections needed to build up their infrastructure and transport ways. To the other reasons might belong the european integration, which also stimulated the progress in this branch. Meanwhile, Slovakia was managed by the former Soviet Union, whose interests were totally different from the western european countries. This was particularly caused by the political system, which we lived in. As the socialistic regime fell down in 1989, the opened borders initiated the government to begin with the reconstruction of the infrastructure. The people started to travel and explored new countries. They've seen the huge difference between Slovakia, where the touristic industry has been isolated for over 40 years, and the western european countries. The main problem of our country in this branch is the contrast of developement between the western and the eastern area. For example, the massive transport in Bratislava can be compared to the transport of almost any modern european city. The most common used type of transport in this city is the car. A typical example of an opposite is Snina, where a car is absolutely uneffective, because the people don't need to travel out of their village. But back to Bratislava. The main problem of the transport in this city might be the amount of vehicles, which causes daily traffic jams. Bratislava also connects Slovakia with Austria and the rest of the European Union, which also contributes to the overall collapse of the city. There have been many particular sollutions already - the construction of bridges and highways. The subway would certainly clear the roads, but the city just can't afford it.

Relating to the whole area of our country, the infrastructure needs to be uprgraded. Connection between the cities is provided mainly by trains and buses. The air travel is totally undeveloped, the only regular air route exists between the two biggest cities in Slovakia -Bratislava and Košice. For the country, the sea transport has only one meaning - international transport and trade. How can we fix these problems, which obviously slow down the growth of our economy? One of the sollutions might be the upcoming membership in the European Union. Its financial aid could help us to enhance the infrastructural net, which includes the construction of highways, subways and the reconstruction of the railway net. Only a highly-developed infrastructure can attract new investors and cause the national (and international) migration within the whole country. So we need to join the european structures as soon as possible. After accomplishing these objectives, we can use the economic potential of our country and achieve the decentralisation of it. If Slovakia doesn't perform any actions in the near future, as a result of that might be the sinking interest of various european investors for our economy. The tourism will stagnate as well. Slovakia will lose lots of money, because the international transport and trade in central europe will take place in other countries.