Instrument of Regional Disparities Reduction - RFID Technologies in Tourism Development

In recent years, tourism became a global phenomenon, which is a very important social activity affecting the behavior and thinking of not only world's, but also Czech population. It's no doubt that it is a significant economic area, which is characterized by unusual range and progression. Tourism represents an increasing comprehensive phenomenon with political, social, economic, cultural, ecological, and the aesthetic dimension. This is an important part of many national and regional economies, worldwide it brings the largest export benefits, and tax revenues; therefore it is a substantial factor in the balance of payments of many countries, resp. regions. Surely, logistics is a part of this sector. People usually don't awake to the fact that the logistic technologies play very important role here. We speak of e. g. purchase and supply, transport, identification of services and persons, etc. This paper is focused on the identification within tourism development, above all on the identification by radio frequency (RFID). Here the hypothesis Ho stands: "The companies in tourist trade using RFID technologies are profitable and may help to its region to achieve any competitive advantage and to strengthen its economic position". In the introduction this technology is explained, subsequently there are outlined the basic principles and methods of its functioning c. the utilization of passive and active tags. Then SWOT analysis of RFID is mentioned. The essential part of the paper is a description of the practical use of RFID in tourism development - i. e. the identification of persons (entrance tickets, chip bracelets, smart ID cards, passports, etc.). Then the analysis of the standard classic identification and identification by radio frequency follows, in particular the cost analysis. The comparison of these two methods adverts to the advantages, but also to the disadvantages of RFID. In conclusion, the return on RFID by the net present value is calculated and the hypothesis H-0 is confirmed.