Challenges for the Visegrad Group – The Coronavirus Crises and its Impact on Tourism

Abstract This paper aims to analyze the regional cooperation which ensures stability and good relations to neighbours and other V4 countries and helps to enforce collaborations across Europe in many fields such as education, tourism and economic development. Another field of activity of the Visegrad Group is a joint positioning in international tourism which will be addressed in this article on the background of the current coronavirus crisis. The empirical part consists of a SWOT analysis for Visegrad group challenges and a PASTA Analysis with which the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the tourism industry in the V4 countries are researched. Lastly, recommendations for possible further actions in times of the coronavirus will be given, and potential future collaborations with the WB6 and EaP countries, also with regard to tourism, will be dealt with briefly. This article summarizes aspects related to tourism market, transport, cultural offer, economy, industry, and environment. The particular focus is also paid to political, economic, sociological, technological, legal and environmental factors of the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia and how the current coronavirus and the resulting measures against the spread of it affects the tourism industry in the Visegrad Group countries.