International tourism as bricolage: an analysis of central Europe on the brink of European Union membership

Abstract

Abstract This paper examines the trajectory of international tourism and its economic role in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia during the post‐1989 transition, leading to their European Union (EU) accession in 2004. Although there are relatively simple, and broadly comparable, trends in all four countries in visitor and tourism flows, this is based on chaotic conceptualisation of international mobility. This apparent bricolage is explored further by considering the role of international tourism in the formal and informal economies. In general, there has been as much change as continuity in the transition period, and this provides the dominant frame of reference for understanding the likely impacts of EU membership. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.