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Tourism is one of the world's most affected sectors by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This article deals with the assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on the visitation of the South Moravian Region, including important cultural and natural sites, based on the analysis of empirical statistical data in the last decade and the calculation of the year-on-year change in attendance between 2019 and 2022. According to the results, the number of visitors to the South Moravian Region in 2020 fell by almost half, including a decrease of a quarter of visitors to cultural monuments compared to 2019. On the other hand, visits to natural areas with no restricted access increased by a fifth after 2020, but natural areas with restricted access fell by more than 40%. From 2021, attendance of the South Moravian Region began to increase slightly, and in 2022, it reached ninety percent of the level before 2019, including attendance at cultural and natural sites. The results of the research confirmed the growing trend in visitors to the South Moravian Region, including cultural and natural monuments, which were significantly influenced by the impact of COVID-19 on tourism after 2020, with a recovery of tourism in 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the question of how the change of geopolitical position in the rural region of Eastern Moravia, which was shifted from the center of the state on its border, is reflected. The paper shows how the originally marginal region transformed from an area with shepherd agriculture to an industrial area with a skilled workforce during the existence of Czechoslovakia and questions how to cope with the consequences of the reverse change into a marginal geopolitical position on the eastern border of Czechia. The paper considers the balance of migration, supplemented by the construction of new dwellings, to be a relatively complex indicator. It states that the region of Eastern Moravia is problematic in terms of further development, except for the northern part, which is affected by the suburbanization of Ostrava. As a result, it proposes to supplement the current orientation toward the manufacturing industry by creating conditions for the development of cultural tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accessibility of basic services in rural settlements in the South Moravian Region was evaluated; the accessibility by public transport was taken into account because the accessibility by individual car transport does not manifest any problems. The accessibility was calculated for 768 rural settlements, defined as spatially separate places which do not belong to municipalities with extended power. The time distance includes the time of the ride plus 8 min walking distance to and from the stop. The data was taken from the Integrated Transport System of the South Moravian Region, which ensures that each populated place in the region has to be connected by public transport at least six times on working days. The results show that for 99.8% of the inhabitants of the region, central places equipped with a post office, a basic school and a general practitioner's office are accessible in a shorter time than 30 min. The accessibility of the services depends primarily on the characteristics of the settlement system and the physical conditions of the transport. In lowland areas, the share of settlements with comfortable accessibility is expressively higher than that of the highland and peripheral territories. The possible future improvement consists of the digitization of the services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the relationship between a consumer lifestyle and the environment. The willingness to adapt to a sustainable lifestyle was tested through a questionnaire among students of Mendel University in Brno, who are theoretically well-informed people. Overall, 417 students answered, i.e., 19% of the respondents. The students generally recognised the need to address environmental issues, and 90.6% intended to change their lifestyle in this direction. Among the barriers, they mentioned in particular lack of time, lack of financial resources, lack of specific information and insufficient conditions. Addressing this issue requires close co-operation in education between governmental and non-governmental organisations in both the public and private sectors. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the situation in that it has drawn attention to the response of local companies to the global problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of the study was to find out whether cultural tourism could be a driver of rural development in the selected area and in general. In case yes, to what extent and under what conditions. Three districts in the South-Moravian Region, Znojmo, Břeclav, and Hodonín, situated in the rural borderland with Austria and Slovakia represented the study area. Both geographical and sociological methods were used to gather evidence for cultural tourism in that study. Firstly, attractiveness analysis of the area defined for cultural tourism took place. Next, factors influencing the potential for cultural tourism affecting rural development in South Moravia were evaluated. Finally, synergistic relations were discussed. In the territory, many forms of tourism intersect. Based on the results, it can be stated that cultural tourism can hardly be the main driver of rural development after the decline of agriculture because the region's economy has branched out in several directions. However, it can be an important complementary activity that yields both economic and non-economic benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainability of rural areas is considered to be most threatened in peripheral, hardly accessible microregions with insufficient economical sources. The paper analyses one such rural area in the eastern part of Moravia from the viewpoint of individual economic, social, and environmental sustainability pillars. The area under study is the mountain territory on the border with Slovakia, which is under large-scale landscape protection. The area with very limited economic sources has been impacted with a change to the geopolitical situation after 1993 (from the centre of Czechoslovakia to the fringe of Czechia). It was stated that the environmental pillar is in the best of conditions; however, perhaps threatened with missing technical infrastructure in relation to the disposal of solid, liquid, and gaseous waste, the social pillar is improving in relation to the post-productive transition, whereas the economic pillar is the most fragile because of its dependence on exogenous jobs in surrounding towns. In general, the microregion seems to be sustainable at the moment. Long-term sustainability will depend on the general economic, demographic, and climatic development of the country and Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research was aimed at an overview and analysis of the demonstration activities in the Czech Republic dealing with the transfer of innovations for agricultural practice. Several methods were used to compile the national inventory, in particular the questionnaire survey method. The Czech part of the research was based on 30 questionnaires conducted among both farmers and agricultural organizations engaged in demonstration activities. The questions were focused on a specialization in agriculture, type of the management, connections with networks and their size, types of demonstration activities according to the types of farms and non-productive activities. The most common topics and purposes for demonstration in the Czech Republic are recorded for the category arable land with combined crops. Highly linked to sustainability are activities such as conservation agriculture on arable land with combined crops, root crops and fodders mainly due to a reduction of soil erosion within crop production and animal health management and welfare for dairy within livestock production. The Ministry of Agriculture has prepared a subsidy program to help farmers in the form of illustrative practical demonstrations of comprehensive sustainable farming practices. The main added values for the end-users, if the generated knowledge is implemented, are to strengthen the knowledge transfer system in agriculture, focusing on practical demonstrations and presentation of sustainable farming systems and soil protection in practice. However, the demonstration activities support mostly technological development and some individual ecological measures whereas the sustainability of agriculture as the complex process unifying the crop and animal production is not in the foreground. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]