COMPARISON OF ATTRACTIVENESS OF TOURIST SITES FOR ECOTOURISM AND MASS TOURISM: THE CASE OF WATERS IN MOUNTAINOUS PROTECTED AREAS

Abstract

Evaluation of tourist attractions by different segments on ‘mass-tourism’ – ‘ecotourism’ continuum for water-enhanced tourist sites in mountain and submontane areas in South Bohemia (Czech Republic) was tested. Students on three different study programmes were chosen as respondents for Q-sort with photos of 48 tourist sites. Principal components factor analysis of respondents sorting revealed three main factors of attractiveness perception: presence of dominant attractiveness, natural landscape versus cultural-historical site, harmony of landscape. Impact of tourist segments was revealed for the first two factors. Hierarchical clustering of cluster analysis was then used to obtain homogenous groups of photos. Nine types were revealed: (a) wetlands; (b) forest springs; (c) historical monuments rather of a marginal character; (d) perspective horizons of various content; (e) technical treatments; (f) historical dominants; (g) waterfalls; (h) alpine (wild) rivers; (i) harmonic landscape. Impact of tourist segments was revealed for clusters (a), (c), (e), (f), and (i).