SERVICES QUALITY EVALUATION AS A TOOL FOR VISITOR MANAGEMENT OF PROTECTED AREAS: A CASE STUDY OF MORAVIAN KARST

This paper deals with an evaluation of services quality in the Moravian Karst Protected Landscape Area (PLA). Moravian Karst is a popular destination not only for inhabitants of the nearby city of Brno. The intensity of tourism has been already too large in many places for effective protection of local nature and landscape, so the PLA administration is currently acquiring the necessary data for improvement of visitor management of the territory. One possible way how to disperse visitors in the PLA is to provide excellent quality of tourism services in places that have not too many visitors yet. Primary data on visitors of the PLA were obtained by a large-scale marketing survey conducted in 2018. Data from 2,100 visitors were collected using a questionnaire survey. Research results show, for example, that 13% of the respondents were not satisfied with the quality of roads and parking in the area, or that 14% were not happy with prices of local services. Outputs of our research can also serve as a key study for other protected areas that deal with the sustainable development of their territory.