Slovenia

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tourists, leading to multiple definitions, each emphasizing different aspects of the same activity. In this sense, it can be said that there is no correct or incorrect setting, since all contribute in some way to deepen the understanding of tourism.

According to UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism Organization): "Tourism comprises the activities that people perform during their travel and stay in different places of their usual environment for a consecutive period of less than one year, with recreational purpose, business or other." Slovenia is a member state of the UNWTO since 1993.

This activity has great importance in the world economy, once the arrival of tourists increases consumption, the production of goods and services and especially the need to create new jobs. The World Tourism Day is celebrated on 27 September.

Tourism in Slovenia

General overview

Slovenia offers a wide number of possibilities to visit. From the mountainous regions in the north, to the Adriatic coast. From the Karst relief to the Pannonian Basin, there are no lack of landscapes and unique adventures. Nevertheless, Slovenia still can not compete with its neighbors in the level of demand for tourism, as shown in the following table.

GEO/TIME 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014

Croatia 5 007 940 5 921 998 6 772 646 7 620 847 8 163 542 8 673 601 7 919 729 11 543 653 12 882 822

Italy 72 313 561 80 031 637 82 030 312 85 956 568 93 044 399 95 546 086 98 813 845 103 733 157 106 552 352

Hungary 6 220 697 6 731 870 6 175 880 6 616 443 7 182 550 7 651 250 7 304 010 8 808 152 10 132 916

Austria 21 348 846 22 649 293 23 562 277 24 765 560 26 508 469 28 833 247 29 700 112 32 325 646 33 646 592

Slovenia 1 751 660 1 884 327 2 089 519 2 267 272 2 410 575 2 941 948 2 851 020 3 255 882 3 474 852

2014 was the year in which Slovenia received more tourists. 9.6 million of overnight stays and a total of 3.5 million arrivals of tourists, which result in an average of 2.7 days of stay. It was also the year that Slovenia recorded the highest number of foreign tourists – 6.1 million. Tourism contributed with 13% to the Slovenian Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and employed something like 13% of the population. The majority of the tourists came from (in decreasing order): Italy (443 239), Austria (256 803), Germany (250673), Croatia (120 260), Serbia (81 595), the Netherlands (78 147), France (75 112), Hungary (74 291), Czech Republic (70 325), and Russia (56 156). The tourists from this countries generated in total almost 43% of overnight stays and 68 % of overnight stays by foreign tourists.

In a more global context, and with the increase in facilities for traveling, it was also noted an increase in tourists from Asia (+5.4% in 2014 comparing with 2013) and America (+ 7.4%).

The most visited cities were Ljubljana, Piran and Bled. Ljubljana was the city more visited by foreign tourists and Piran registered more overnight stays by Slovenian tourists.

In the graphic above it is possible check the progress of the growth of tourism in Slovenia, in Europe and in the world, since 1995. It is easy to perceive that there is an almost continuous evolution, both in Slovenia as in Europe and worldwide. Only in 1999 and 2009 can be seen a slowdown in the growth of tourism. Regarding the case of 2009, this may well be related to the global economy crisis that erupted in 2008, once it is also reflected in the European and world situation.

In short, we can say that tourism in Slovenia is showing a very positive trend, especially since 2010, period which has the highest growth index, possibly boosted by the "Slovenian Tourism Development Strategy 2012-2016" program.

Mountain Tourism

The mountain tourism explores the landscape and environmental resources of the mountain spaces. It is mainly sought in the winter to practice snow sports. Tourists of this type of tourism seek especially green spaces and clean air, being essentially practiced by the urban population, which sees the mountain as an escape from the bigger cities. This type of tourism brings advantages to the surrounding areas because it creates jobs, promotes local products in terms of gastronomy and crafts, leads to the development and improvement of infrastructure including access and a local economic development.

We can identify two types of mountain tourism:

One more oriented to the exploration of nature, such as vegetation, waterfalls, with several associated sports, such as walking paths, climbing, hiking and rappelling. This type of tourism usually occurs in regions of equatorials climates, tropical and / or tempered.

The other type of mountain tourism occurs in cold climates, where the main attractions are the ski slopes on the ice, especially some sports like skiing, snowboard and ice skating. This is combined with the cottages and hotels with very comfortable conditions. The mountains slovenia have in the north parth of the county are a great attraction for nature lovers and especially to the lovers of winter sports.

The table above shows that the Slovenian population look essentially for health spa’s (with 47.6%) and seaside resorts (25.8%). From amoung the foreign tourists, there is a bigger similarity between the various types of tourism, even though they seek more mountain tourism, accounting a total of 1,665,084 nights in these types of establishments. The tourism in mountains is mainly sought by citizens of the island of Malta (77% of tourists from Malta looked for accommodation in the mountains), followed by the British (58%).

In this chart we can see that during the year of 2014 the most overnight stays took place in August, in mountain resorts. That prevailed between the months of May and September, with foreign tourists, which totaled in 2014 a total of 1,570,338 overnight stays, being the type of tourism that welcomed more foreign visitors this year. The health spas, with a total of 1,325,696, are more regular during the year. Although this, it also denote a peak in the summer months, but these are not as significant as mountain resorts.

Kamnik Report

Kamnik is a small town located in the north of Slovenia. It is the administrative cent of the municipality of Kamnik. It belongs to a large part of Kamnik-Savinja Alps and the surrounding area. The city has about 13,608 inhabitants