DEMAND AND SUPPLY COMPARISON OF REGIONAL PRODUCTS IN TOURISM

It becomes more and more attractive for visitors to experience original and authentic products which present culture and traditions of the destination, reflect the local differences, specifications and particularities. Regional products are able to meet these needs and thus they should be recognized, preserved and promoted. The aim of the paper is to analyse the demand on regional products from visitors' perspective and compare it with the supply of regional products in Slovakia. This study examines visitors' requirements and preferences toward regional products and willingness to buy them during holiday. It identifies typical regional products of Slovakia and compare them with regional branding. An electronic research was conducted from December 2015 to January 2016 and completed by 150 respondents. We also used secondary data on regional brands published on web pages concerning regional branding. The data were interpreted by cluster analyses and methods of descriptive statistics. The results show that regionally branded products meet visitors' requirements on the attributes of regional products. Nevertheless, the regional products demanded by visitors appear to be different when it comes to the supply of regionally branded products. In addition, regional products are poorly accessible and recognized by domestic visitors. Consequently, the study reveals some recommendations that could increase visitors' usage of regional products while visiting Slovak regions.