A poll taken by the GfK agency for the Wall Street Journal Europe found that this year residents of central and eastern Europe are more reluctant to take a holiday than people living in western Europe. The poll found that slightly less than 30 percent of respondents take a two week holiday each year, about the same percentage have a one week holiday and 13 percent of respondents prefer a holiday shorter than 7 days, the SITA newswire wrote. About two-thirds of the respondents will stay in their homeland for their holidays. In Hungary and Poland (as in Portugal, Spain, Italy and France) locals mostly prefer a holiday at home. Czechs travel more often to foreign countries while in Germany 37 percent stay home and about 30 percent head towards southern Europe.
The ideal holiday for Slovaks has not changed much. Based on data from travel agencies, 95 percent of the Slovaks who use their services to travel abroad go primarily to Egypt, Turkey, Canary Islands, Croatia, and Italy and the Greek islands remain a popular destination in spite of the economic crisis in that country. About 5 percent of the Slovaks prefer a holiday in Slovakia – either families with young children or those who have less than one week off, Anežka Hrabovská of the Firo-Tour travel agency told the ČTK newswire.
According to the Slovak Agency for Tourism (SACR), Slovaks who prefer to spend their holiday in their home country are inclined to swim, bike and hike in the first part of the summer while in August they prefer sightseeing, spas and sports – activities not bound to the weather. SACR conducted a poll through their website as part of its campaign to support domestic tourism, the TASR newswire wrote. Another poll, organised by the internet portals www.heureka.sk and www.heureka.cz, found that one in three Slovaks stays in Slovakia for holiday while in the Czech Republic it is every second resident. About 39 percent of Slovaks travelled abroad in 2010 compared to 30 percent of Czechs, according to this poll.
