Tourism Indicators and Their Differentiated Impact on Sustainable Tourism Development

Abstract

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.