An interesting professional event was held on 30 May 2023 in the meeting room of the Scientific Council of the Faculty of Management, Economics and Business with the participation of members of the research team from the Faculty of Management, Economics and Business, co-investigators of the project from the partner university from the Czech Republic, namely Pan-European University, Faculty: College of Businesss in Prague   in Prague - Ing. Iveta Hamarneh, Ph.D, Head of the Department of Tourism and Ing. Petr Houška, PhD., member of the Department of Tourism and other invited guests who gave expert lectures.

   The workshop was opened and participants were welcomed by assoc. prof.  Ing. Anna Šenková, PhD., Head of the Department of Tourism and Hotel Management and also the project leader. In her introductory speech, she informed the participants about the project objectives, its focus, activities implemented in the first year of the project and other planned activities and publication outputs in the current year of the project. In particular, she stressed that thanks to the provided financial resources, all planned project activities focused on both the research part of the project and the linking of theoretical teaching with practice, especially through student excursions and lectures by experts from practice at the faculty, are being implemented. The need for innovation of selected study disciplines of the Bachelor's degree programme in Tourism, Hotel and Spa Industry is urgent, especially with an emphasis on the current situation in the tourism sector in Slovakia in the interest of its sustainable development in the future.

This was followed by a speech of the deputy project leader assoc. prof. Ing. Kristina Šambronská, PhD., who dealt with the issue of association of entities in tourism from the perspective of theory. She emphasized that the tourism product is the result of collective production, especially of regional partners who, by promoting common interests and understanding the relationships between entities, can successfully develop a tourism destination. In networks, competing partners in the region cooperate, which means that otherwise direct competitors must be aware of and willing to form strategic alliances and exploit the synergies of cooperation.

   Another presentation was given by RNDr. Ema Gojdičová from the State Nature Conservation of the Slovak Republic, Regional Centre in Prešov. It was entitled: "Sustainable tourism and nature conservation in Poloniny National Park". In the introduction she focused mainly on the legislative conditions of nature protection in Slovakia, which is implemented in the public interest, presented the history of the establishment of national parks and other protected areas. Then, using the specific example of the Poloniny National Park, which was proclaimed in 1997, she explained the activities that may be carried out there in order to maintain the gradual restoration of natural ecosystems in at least three quarters of the national park area.

Another speaker, Ing. Daniela Galandová, Manager for the Development of Poloniny NP, followed the presentation of RNDr. Emma Gojdičová with a contribution entitled: "Poloniny National Park - a living landscape on the Slovak-Polish-Ukrainian border". She focused her attention mainly on the presentation of the natural values of the Poloniny National Park, which are mainly the Carpathian beech forests, inscribed in the UNESCO World Natural Heritage List, the Poloniny Dark Sky Park and others. A significant part of her presentation was devoted to the already implemented and planned development activities in the Poloniny NP, both in the field of nature conservation and tourism development.

Mgr. Michaela Zdražilová, Executive Director of Destination Management Organization (DMO) Zemplín in her contribution entitled: "Cooperation brings results in tourism development. Examples of good practice from DMO Horný Zemplín" presented the rich activities and products of this Destination Management Organization, which currently has 30 members from the ranks of municipalities, business and the third sector.

   The application of ETIS indicators for sustainable development of tourism destinations on the example of selected European countries was presented in her speech by Mgr. Erika Kormaníková, an internal PhD student at the Department of Tourism and Hotel Management, who also deals with this issue in her dissertation.

   In a rich discussion on all the topics presented, the participants expressed their opinions and there was also a positive evaluation of the implementation of the professional workshop as an active form of cooperation between the university and practice.  They also agreed on the need for new solutions and approaches in the management of tourism in Slovakia for its sustainable development in the period after the Covid-19 pandemic and after the end of the war conflict in Ukraine. The main publication output of the second year of the project will be a university textbook "Sustainable Tourism Development - New Challenges and Trends".

                                                                             Autor: assoc. prof. Ing. Anna Šenková, PhD.