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The paper discusses geographical characteristics of Slovenia from the perspective of tourism development and presents main processes that have marked it in the last decades. Tourism has significantly affected the appearance as well as economic and social structure of many Slovenian regions. The paper focuses on the role of various factors, which influenced tourist attraction of Slovenia and its regions, as well as on changes in tourism supply and demand in the last decades and their relation to some of the political and economic events. Recently, Slovenia has experienced an above-average rate of tourism growth. Several of the nation-state’s geopolitical decisions impacted the growth of the tourism economy: Slovenia became a member of the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) (2004), introduced the Euro as the national currency (2007) and became a full member of the Schengen Space (2009). However, impacts of these changes were not comparable to the impacts of political and economic disruptions, related to the disintegration of Yugoslavia, which caused drastic decline in foreign tourists’ numbers at the beginning of the 1990s. Despite long-term growth trends, tourism in Slovenia is already facing many challenges (e.g., unreliable snow cover in the winter season in Alpine resorts as a result of the climate change impacts). Moreover, the growth of tourism has caused some environmental and social problems (or at least contributed to them) in those areas where tourism development has been the most intensive. Nevertheless, impacts of tourism have been rather limited. One of the important reasons why, so far, tourism has not caused any large-scale environmental or social problems is the fact that Slovenia has not developed real mass tourism. In the European context, Slovenia remains an only moderately developed tourist destination. Due to the growing competition on the global tourism market a continuous adaptation to the changing tourism demand is of crucial importance, taking into account not just short-term gains, but especially tourism sector’s long-term viability. From this perspective, also sustainable tourism principles should be considered more relevant.

The paper analyzes data on tourist arrivals in Slovenian municipalities. It focuses on the question to what extent the structure of tourist arrivals is more or less heterogeneous in regard to the nationality of tourists visiting these municipalities and which factors influence it. For this purpose data of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia for the year 2008 were used. Analysis of the data showed that the following factors are among the ones that influence the arrival of tourists from large number of countries: above-average awareness of the destination, proximity of the most important traffic routes (highways) and tourism supply (tourist attractions), which is of interest for different tourist segments and which attracts also tourists from far-away countries. Prispevek analizira podatke o prihodih turistov v slovenskih občinah. Osredotoča se na vprašanje, v kolikšni meri je turistični obisk bolj ali manj heterogen glede na državni izvor turistov, ki obiščejo te občine, in kateri dejavniki vplivajo na to. V ta namen so bili uporabljeni podatki Statističnega urada RS za leto 2008. Analiza je pokazala, da na prihod turistov iz velikega števila držav med drugim vplivajo naslednji dejavniki: nadpovprečna poznanost destinacije, bližina najpomembnejših prometnic (avtocest) in turistična ponudba (turistične privlačnosti), ki je zanimiva za različne skupine turistov in ki pritegne tudi obiskovalce iz bolj oddaljenih držav.

Surveys show the growing importance of noise issue also in Slovenia. More than 30 % of population are over-burdoned by traffic noise. Expertise on Ljubljana indicates that for 36 % of population noise represents a huge disturbance though a quarter is indifferent. The issue on noise over-burdening in settlements is partly solved by new highways and detours, but the problem is getting bigger due to increased traffic. Raziskave kažejo, da postaja izpostavljenost hrupu vse bolj problematična tudi v Sloveniji. Daleč najbolj moteč je prometni hrup, s katerim je preobremenjenih preko 30 % prebivalcev. Pri obsežno zasnovani raziskavi na primeru Ljubljane smo ugotovili, da hrup nasploh močno moti kar 36 % ljudi, le slabe četrtine pa hrup v bivalnem okolju ne moti. Z izgradnjo obvoznih cest in avtocestnih povezav se problematika hrupne preobremenjenosti v naseljih deloma rešuje, vendar zaradi povečevanja prometa ta problem kljub temu narašča.

The aim of the research was to analyses the network of central places in Slovenia and their spheres of influence. It was also an attempt at the identification of changes in the network of central places in the past decade.The necessary data were obtained with the help of the questionnaire survey. In order to get information about the provision of central places withdifferent services extensive statistical and other data sources were used. We have concentrated our attention on the higher order central places network, while the lower order central places haven`t been differentiated morein detail. It has been possible to distinguish 2 macro regional centres, 17 mezzo regional centres and 79 micro regional centres. Besides that there are also numerous smaller centres on the lower hierarchical levels. Namen raziskave je bila analiza omrežja centralnih naselij v Sloveniji in njihovih vplivnih območij, hkrati pa je šlo tudi za poskus ugotovitve sprememb v omrežju centralnih naselij v minulem desetletju. Podatke smo dobili s pomočjo ankete, za pridobitev informacij o opremljenosti centralnih naselij z različnimi storitvenimi dejavnostmi pa smo uporabili statistične in druge podatke. Osredotočili smo se na omrežje centralnih naselij na višjih hierarhičnih stopnjah, medtem ko naselij na nižjih hierarhičnih ravneh nismo podrobneje diferencirali. Na osnovi razpoložljivih podatkov smo izločili 2 makroregionalni središči, 17 mezoregionalnih središč in 79 mikroregionalnih središč. Poleg njih ima svoje mesto v omrežju centralnih naselij še vrsta manjših središč.

Koprsko primorje is an example of coastal region with different kinds of environment pollution and different problems, intensified in this area due to various reasons. In the first part of the article same fact on the environment condition are stated and in the second part the examples of the environment pollution, connected to the activities, which are of the bigger importance for Koprsko primorje (tourism, traffic, etc.) or which can not be neglected regarding their impact on the environment condition, are stated. Koprsko primorje je primer obalnega območja, v katerem se zaradi raznovrstnih razlogov zgoščajo različne okoljske obremenitve in problemi. V prvem delu prispevka so predstavljene nekatere ugotovitve o stanju okolja, v drugem delu pa primeri okoljskih obremenitev, ki so povezane s tistimi dejavnostmi, ki so v Koprskem primorju nadpovprečno pomembne (turizem, promet,...), oziroma katerih vpliv na stanje okolja je takšen, da jih ni mogoče prezreti.

V prispevku so na kratko predstavljene nekatere pomembnejše ugotovitve o bližnji rekreaciji prebivalstva Domžal, mesta v bližini Ljubljane. Vir podatkov je bilo anketiranje v izvornem območju, torej v samem naselju. Pozornost je bila namenjena zlasti rekreacijskim navadam obravnavanega prebivalstva in ugotavljanju ciljnih območij izletov. Podobno kot za večja slovenska mesta sta tudi za obravnavani primer značilna velika heterogenost ravnanja v prostem času in intenzivna prostočasna dejavnost, ki se izraža v množičnosti in pogostosti izletov ter precejšnih prepotovanih razdaljah, kar vpliva tudi na temu ustrezne pokrajinske učinke bližnje rekreacije.