The State of Tour Operators in Slovakia before the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly paralyzed tour operators’ activities around the world. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the state of tour operators using the example of Slovakia and to point out its specifics that may affect its recovery. This paper identifies active tour operators, recognizing them in terms of selected criteria and uses cluster analysis to reveal consistent groups of enterprises. It is based mostly on content analysis of relevant websites. The results show there is a moderate level of concentration that characterizes Slovak tour operators with four large enterprises generating more than a third of all revenues. A typical tour operator in Slovakia is an outbound micro-enterprise with 3S mass product which intervenes in the activities of travel agency. The authors estimate that due to the Covid-19 pandemic measures, many tour operators will disappear, transform into pure travel agency or leave mass holidays product.