Tourists' motivation to visit and perception of visitor attractions illustrated on the example of Hortobágy National Park

Abstract

Purpose. The article presents the results of research concerning tourists’ motivation for using so-called sustainable tourism. What is more, it evaluates the tourist attrac-tions offered at Hortobágy National Park. The partial purpose of the article is present-ing the attractiveness of Hortobágy National Park, while the main one is presentation of tourists’ motivation for visiting this destination of sustainable tourism and investi-gating their perception illustrated on the example of Hortobágy. Method. The research methods used in this article include: participant observation supplemented with questionnaire surveys and numerous free-form interviews. Findings. The largest portion of visitors is satisfi ed by the tourist offer of Hortobágy National Park. Hortobágy National Park is a place, where the aims of UNESCO Site, Biosphere Reserve, national park and others, are the most important and where they are achieved. These aims are mainly connected to biodiversity preservation and edu-cation about the dependence between bio- and cultural diversity, and current human activity. Tourism is an additional function of Hortobágy National Park and the tour-ists’ movement is not to overbear the natural and cultural heritage protective function of this area. Finally, this kind of tourism presented in Hortobágy National Park helps to achieve the sustainable development at the destination. Research and conclusion limitations. The structure of respondents according to the country of origin is not exactly the same in the results as in reality. Sometimes it might cause wrong conclusions, especially in context of inadequate foreign language knowl-edge among the national park employees. Practical implications. Results enable formulating conclusions on the main groups of receivers of the national park’s tourist offer, tourists’ perception of sustainable tourism as well as proposals of solutions aiming at maintaining the present balance between environmental protection and tourism management taking the suggestions of tourists with high ecological awareness into consideration. Originality. There are very few papers which focus on Hortobágy National Park and this is one of the fi rst about tourism on this area. This paper shows the Hortobágy National Park sustainability to be between the strictly protected area and tourism destination.Type of paper. The article presents the results of empirical research.