OriginalScientificArticle
UsingGoogleTrendsinInternationalTourism:
ACaseStudyoftheCzechandSlovakRepublics
PatrikKajzar
SilesianUniversityinOpava,CzechRepublic
kajzar@opf.slu.cz
RadimDolák
SilesianUniversityinOpava,CzechRepublic
dolak@opf.slu.cz
RadmilaKrkošková
SilesianUniversityinOpava,CzechRepublic
krkoskova@opf.slu.cz
This paper dealswith using Google Trends in InternationalTourism. The attention
willbefocusedonanalysingthebehaviourofCzechandSlovaktouriststravellingto
seasideresortsbetweentheyears2010–2019.Thispaperaimstodeterminewhether
there is a connection between the data from the official statistics where Czech and
Slovak tourists went and what they were searching on Google Search. The authors
alsocomparetheGoogleTrendsanalysiswiththestatisticaldataforCzechandSlo-
vak tourists travelling to seaside resorts. The paper uses the data from 2010 related
to the popularity of Czech and Slovak destinations; the data from 2019 to Decem-
berisnotavailableyet.Thispaperwillalsoprovidedetailedstatisticalreportsusing
theSpearman’srankcorrelationcoefficient.Itisveryimportanttomentionthatthis
article focuses only on the Google Trends analysis for the travelling category. Des-
tination selection is a complex process that is influenced by many factors. Google
Trends is a useful tool for a prediction about travelling to seaside resorts, but that
doesnotalwaysaccuratelyreflectthepopularityofadestinationcomparedtostatis-
tics.
Keywords:GoogleTrends,tourism,Czech,Slovak,seasideresorts
https://doi.org/10.26493/2335-4194.14.205-216
Introduction
Tourism is a growing phenomenon, both in size and
impact.AccordingtoMuraandKajzar(2018),tourism
is travel for pleasure or business; it is also the theory
and practice of touring, the business of attracting, ac-
commodating,andentertainingtourists,andthebusi-
ness of operating tours (Benevolo & Spinelli, 2018).
Small and medium-sized enterprises constitute a sig-
nificantpartoftheCzechandSlovakeconomies,with
the greatest potential for growth and impact on eco-
nomic stabilization and balanced development of the
regions(Kovaľováetal.,2018).
TheInternetisgenerallyknownastheprimaryin-
formation source for searching for information. The
Internetisalsothemost importantsourceforsearch-
ing for information about travelling. People very of-
ten organizetheir travellingaccordingto information
on the Internet using Google services; this is stored
in Google company databases, and we can analyse
searchinginformationin GoogleTrendsservice.
Academica Turistica, Year 14,No. 2,December 2021 |205

Patrik Kajzar etal. UsingGoogleTrends inInternational Tourism
What is the definition of Google Trends? We can
mention for example the following definition:Google
Trends is a tool that offers a variety of information
such as the searches that are currently popular, his-
torical data for search keywords,and traffictrendsfor
websitessearchersareinterestedin.GoogleTrendsal-
lows entry of multiple search keywords so that you
can compare and contrast. It also gives search trends
by limiting to a specific geographic location (Benck-
endorffetal.,2019).Asideeffectistheabilitytofollow
trendsrelativelyeasily.Inthefieldofinternetbusiness,
monitoring and predicting trends is a very important
factorthatcan standbetweensuccess andfailure.
Google Trends is a very powerful service that al-
lows different analyses which can be useful for some
researchofsearchingtrendsintourism,services,prod-
ucts, etc. More information about the Google Trends
service can be found in the bookGoogleTrends:The
UltimateStep-by-StepGuide, (Blokdyk,2018) whichis
characterizedasaguidethatensuresallGoogleTrends
essentialsarecoveredfromeveryangle.
Wewillsummarizeliteraturesourcesthatdealwith
using Google Trends in tourism in the first chapter
and then we will discuss the issue of analysing the
behaviour of Czech and Slovak tourists travelling to
seaside resorts between 2010–2019, based on the data
fromGoogleTrendsandofficialstatisticsprovidedby
theCzechStatisticalOfficeandtheStatisticalOfficeof
theSlovakRepublic.
Theoreticalbackground
The rapid growth of digital technology and intensive
presenceonsocialmediaplatformsleadstotheemer-
gence of online content sharing (people to people),
which results in the emergence of the sharing econ-
omy(e.g.Krajciketal.,2019;Mura&Kajzar,2019).
We can find some literature sources that deal with
using Google Trends in tourism. The Google Trends
analysis was used for forecasting tourism demand
in some areas such as, for example the master the-
sis,ForecastingTourismDemandinAmsterdamwith
GoogleTrends:AResearchintotheForecastingPoten-
tialofGoogleTrendsforTourismDemandinAmster-
dam (Rödel, 2017). Also interestingis a study thatex-
amines the usefulness of Google Trends data in pre-
dictingmonthlytouristarrivalsandovernightstaysin
Prague during the period between January 2010 and
December2016 (Havranek & Zeynalov, 2018).
According to Gorete et al. (2019), Google Trends
has been increasingly used in research publications
in tourism and hospitality, but the range of its appli-
cations and methods used has not yet been reviewed.
Therefore,asystematicreviewoftheexistingliterature
increases awareness of its potential uses in tourism
andhospitalityresearchandfacilitatesandhelpsabet-
ter understanding of its strengths and weaknesses as
a research tool. We can also find numerous research
papers using statistical analysis to characterize and
compare the number of visitors in some countries,
districts, or towns. Kasagranda (2012) has compared
thenumberofvisitorsoftheNomenclatureofUnits
for Territorial Statistics (nuts ii) – Central Slovakia
at regional and district levels in two selected years,
2001and2011.Anotherpaperdealswithregionaldis-
parities in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. For ex-
ample, Ivanova and Koisova (2014) deal with sim-
ilarities or disparities in development according to
the analysed indicators in the Slovak and Czech re-
gions in the given period 2001–2012. Time series data
about the frequency of hits for tourism-related search
termsfromGoogle Trendsservice is used as a predic-
tor. Another example of studies about search engine-
databasedtourismdemandpredictionisbyParketal.
(2017), which considers tourist inflow from Japan to
SouthKorea,orbyArtolaandMartínez-Galán(2012),
whoforecastnumbersofBritishtouristsinSpain.The
authorsof this paper agree with Bokelmannand Less-
mann(2019)thattourismdemandforecastingremains
an open research field since no method is generally
consideredmostaccurate.
A destination that develops a thematic product
with a combination of three elements, fun, experi-
ence, and exploring, becomes fashionable. Costa et
al. (2016) examine the key trends in tourism and ap-
proaches for scanning the business environment and
the tourism industry. The tourism industry is one of
the fastest-growing industries in the world (Ranas-
inghe, 2019). The focus of the article is important
because the tourism industry is an entrepreneurial
sector providing various kinds of services that in-
206 | Academica Turistica, Year 14,No. 2,December 2021

PatrikKajzar etal. UsingGoogle TrendsinInternational Tourism
volve providers of accommodation facilities from ho-
tel chains to small private boarding houses, and also
a sector related to tourist attractions: national parks;
cultural and historical sights; theme parks; botanic
gardens; sports centres; transport and the destina-
tion organization sector. A change can be observed
in the number and structure of domestic and for-
eigntourists,andatthesametime,thedemandfor
quality services is increasing (Kubala & Vetráková,
2018). It has been found that tourism stimulates lo-
cal economies, attracts foreign investments, increases
entrepreneurialactivities,raisespropertyvalue,devel-
opssocialinfrastructure,andattractsawealthymiddle
class (Zeng-Xian& Tak-Kee,2016).
According to Walby and Piché (2015), tourism is a
social, cultural, and economic phenomenon that en-
tails the movement of people to countries or places
outside their usual environment for personal or busi-
ness/professional purposes. Many travellers seek es-
cape,pleasure,friendships,relaxation,andunusualex-
periences(BácsnéBába etal.2018).
It might be well accepted nowadays that intensive
competitivenessin termsofboth quantityandquality
makes it extremely difficult for a firm to differentiate
itself from its competitors. Moreover, dynamic busi-
ness environments and increasing customer power
have pushed firms toward a customer-focused strat-
egy,especiallyusingnewtechnologytobuildrelation-
ships with the customer (Minh & Huu, 2016). In a
complex and dynamic business environment, man-
agers appeal widely to modern methods and tech-
niquesthatcouldhelpthemcopewiththecompeti-
tion and offer their customers new, attractive, good
qualityproductsandservicesatcompetitiveprices.In
this context, total quality management is a viable and
sustainable option that can systematically contribute
to the consolidation of the capacity of organizations
(Androniceanu, 2017). Tourism studies suggest that
being a competitive destination means being able to
increase the tourism sector and the quality of life of
thepopulation (Croes,2010).
DataandMethodology
The Internet is used by millions of people daily to
finddifferenttypesofinformation.TheInternetisalso
the most importantsourcefor searchingforinforma-
tion about travelling. People very often organize their
travel according to information on the Internet. The
most common search engine is Google, accounting
for 75 of these searches. Information about search-
ing using Google services is stored in Google com-
pany databases and we can analyse this data using
the Google Trends service. Google Trends is a ser-
vice that can monitor the popularity of search topics
and terms over a specified period (Dey et al., 2019).
Google Trends provides access to a largely unfiltered
sample of actual search requests made to Google. It
is anonymized (no one is personally identified), cat-
egorized (determining the topic for a search query),
and aggregated (grouped). This allows us to display
interestin a particulartopic fromaroundthe globe or
downtocity-levelgeography(Google Help,n.d.).
GoogleTrends(https://trends.google.com/trends/)
provides a web interface for mining Google’s search
history database. Users may mine the database us-
ing preconstructed ‘topics’ or via the free-text of a
given search entry. In our search, the topic ‘Google
Trends in tourism’ was used. Google Trends data re-
flectssearchespeoplemakeonGoogleeveryday,butit
can also reflect irregular search activity, such as auto-
matedsearchesorqueriesthatmaybeassociatedwith
attempts to spam our search results. Google Trends
data should always be considered as one data point
among others before making conclusions. Accord-
ing to Rogers (2016), there are two ways to filter the
Trends data: real-time and non-real-time. Real-time
is a random sample of searches from the last seven
days, while non-real-time is another random sample
of the full Google dataset that can go back anywhere
from 2004 to approximately 36 hours ago. The charts
willshowyoueitheroneortheother,butnotbothsi-
multaneously, because these are two separate random
samples. What is most useful for storytelling is nor-
malizedtrendsdata.Thismeansthatwhenwelookat
search interest over time for a topic, we look at that
interest as a proportion of all searches related to all
topics on Google at a given time and location. Google
Trends allows entry of multiple search keywords so
thatonecancompareandcontrast.Italsogivessearch
trends by limiting to a specific geographic location
Academica Turistica, Year14,No. 2,December 2021 |20 7

Patrik Kajzar etal. UsingGoogleTrends inInternational Tourism
(Benckendorff et al., 2019). When we look at regional
search interest for a topic, we look at the search in-
terest for that topic in a given region as a proportion
of all searches related to all topics on Google in that
sameplaceandtime.Thecontextofournumbersalso
matters. We index our data to 100, where 100 is the
maximumsearchinterestforthetimeandlocationse-
lected.Understandingthepercentincreaseinasearch
topic can be a useful way to understand how much
riseininterestthereisinatopic.Thispercentincrease
isbasedonatopic’ sgrowthinsearchinterestovera
distinct periodcomparedtothe previousperiod.
We can see the important role of information and
communicationstechnology(ict)intourism.Cákoci
(2012) deals with a short review of development and
changesintourismundertheinfluenceofinformation
technologies.Thepaperdescribesusingtheinternetin
tourismfromthebeginning,overitsdramaticgrowth,
until its current main position in tourism informa-
tiondistribution,asacommunicationmedium,anda
place ofconsumption.Google servicesareveryuseful
fortourism,too.Wecanreadmoreinformationabout
thepossibilitiesofusingapplicationprogrammingin-
terfaces from Google, in the process of a creative web
page devoted to the distribution of selected informa-
tion about Slovak communities in a graphically inter-
estingpresentation(Bačík, 2012).
Google Trends also allows the user to compare
the volume of searches with two or more terms. An
additional feature of Google Trends is its ability to
show news related to the search term overlaid on the
chart, showing how new events affect search popular-
ity (Sfetcu, 2014). Google Trends allows you to size
up search trends related to topics of interest broken
down into geographicalboundaries (states, countries,
orworldwide)orthematiccategories(health,science,
news, and travel, among others), as well as tempo-
ral delimitations (specific periods, last five years, last
week, and so forth).
The authors will first compare data from Google
TrendswithdatafromtheCzechStatisticalOfficeand
theStatisticalOfficeoftheSlovakRepublic.Thepaper
also uses data from 2010 on the popularity of Czech
and Slovak destinations; data from 2019 is not yet
availabletoDecember2020.Theauthorsuseddiffer-
entwaysofpresentingthedatawiththehelpoftables
and graphs.
On this basis of research, two research questions
havebeenidentified:
•
Is the popularity of the destinations different for
Czechs and Slovaks in more than4 cases?
•
Is Google Trends data similar for searching se-
lected keywords for Czech and Slovak internet
users?
A detailed statistical report will also be provided
using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient dealing
withthesehypotheses:
•
There is a dependence on the number of visitors
tothesamecountriesinthecaseofstaysabroad
ofCzechandSlovaktourists,accordingtoofficial
statistics.
•
There is a correlation between the data from
the official statistics related to the places where
Czech and Slovak tourists went and what they
weresearching on Google Search.
We will start by comparing favourite destinations
for longer trips abroad for Czechs, such as Croatia,
Greece,andBulgaria,in Figure1.
We can see thatGreecepresentsamuch more fre-
quentkeywordforsearchingthanCroatia.Wecansee
changing trends in comparing interest over time be-
tweenCroatiaandBulgariabecausefrom2017thein-
terestinsearchingforBulgariaismuchbiggerthanfor
Croatia. Although most Czechs travel to Croatia ac-
cordingtoTable1,theyoftenreturntothesameplaces,
so they do not need to search for information about
Croatiaanymore.Croatiaisanearbyresortwherema-
jorproblemswithtravellingdonotexist.Holidayingin
Croatia has a certain tradition in the country so one
can visit with a lot of travel agencies. Holiday apart-
ments in Croatia would be the best choice of accom-
modationinCroatia.
We will continue with comparing favourite desti-
nations for Slovaks, such as Croatia, Greece, and Bul-
gariainFigure2.
We can see that Bulgaria is a more frequent key-
word for searching for the Slovaks than Croatia and
Greece, therefore we can conclude that there is a dif-
ference between Czech and Slovak users in terms of
208 | Academica Turistica, Year 14,No. 2,December 2021

PatrikKajzar etal. UsingGoogle TrendsinInternational Tourism
Figure1
GoogleTrends
DataforCroatia,
Greece,and
Bulgaria for Czech
InternetUsers
Searching
Figure2
GoogleTrends
DataforCroatia,
Greece,and
Bulgariafor Slovak
InternetUsers
Searching
searching these countries. Bulgaria is interesting not
only for the inhabitants of Western Europe but also
for Slovaks, Czechs, Poles and Hungarians. Bulgaria
is one of Europe’s most budget-friendly destinations
forcheapholidaysandthereforeBulgariaholidaysare
often seen as a more economical alternative to the
Mediterranean’sbest holiday destinations
WewillcontinuewithGoogleTrendssearchingfor
Czechs for Spain,Portugal,and Italyin Figure 3.
WecanseethatItalyisamorefrequentkeywordfor
searchingforthe CzechsthanSpainandPortugal.Al-
thoughPortugalisalsoabeautifulcountry,theCzechs
prefer to choose a holiday to other destinations, also
becauseofhigherpricesforholidaysfromtravelagen-
cies, unlike Italy and Greece. According to Table 1,
which shows the most popular countries for longer
tripsabroadforCzechs,Italyhasavariedtouristoffer
such as the sun, sea, beaches, culture, art, mountains
andgoodfood.Moreover,itiseasilyaccessiblebycar,
in particular the regions of northern Italy. In winter,
Czech tourists enjoy holidaying in the snowy moun-
tains of the Italian Alps, so Italy is a popular destina-
tion forCzech touristsat any time of the year.
Wecanseethesamecountryinterestsearchingfor
SlovakinternetusersinFigure4.Wecanseethesame
Google Trends data for Spain, Portugal, and Italy for
Slovak internet users searching. We can see that Italy
is a much more frequent keyword for searching than
Spain and Portugal. Czech users more often search
for the keywords Italy and Spain than Slovak users.
So we can conclude that there is a difference between
CzechandSlovakusersintermsofsearchingforthese
countries.Italyisoneofthemostpopulardestinations
for the Slovaks for these reasons:Italian food – pizza,
pasta,cheese,localfreshproducts,andwine,beaches,
mountains, islands, lakes, and other natural wonders.
Academica Turistica, Year 14,No. 2,December 2021 |209

Patrik Kajzar etal. UsingGoogleTrends inInternational Tourism
Figure3
GoogleTrends
DataforSpain,
Portugal,andItaly
for Czech Internet
Users Searching
Figure4
GoogleTrends
DataforSpain,
Portugal,andItaly
for Slovak Internet
Users Searching
Italyis alsothecradleofartandculture.
The last analysis of interest over time in searching
will deal with Turkey, Egypt, and Dubai. We can see
that there are minimal differences for Czech internet
userssearchingforfrequentkeywordslikeTurkeyand
Egypt, followed by Dubai. We can see that Egypt, in
the years 2010, 2017, and 2018, is a much more fre-
quent keyword for searching than Turkey and Dubai.
Wecanalsoseeanupwardtrendoverthepast2years
for Czech internet users searching for the keywords
Turkey and Egypt. Despite the minimal differences,
a bigger difference is seen in 2019 between search-
ing for the frequent keywords Turkey and Egypt. The
CzechswhogoonholidaytoTurkeycanalsoexpectto
save significantly. In 2019, Turkey became the cheap-
estcountryoutofthe11countriesthattheCzechsvisit
most often, replacing the long-time leader Bulgaria,
whichisnowinthesecondplace.ACzechtouristwill
make a purchase in Turkey worth 57 percent higher
thanathome.
InFigure6wecanseethedifferenceforSlovak
internet users searching for keywords Turkey, Egypt,
and Dubai. For every year, we can see that the most
frequent searching keyword is Turkey. In the year
2016, Slovakinternetusers searchedforthe keywords
TurkeyandEgyptleastbecauseofamilitarycoupand
terroristattacks, respectively.In additionto Dubai, an
upwardtrendcanbeseenoverthepast3yearsforSlo-
vak internet users searching for the keywords Turkey
and Egypt. We can conclude that there is a difference
betweenCzechandSlovakusersintermsofsearching
forthesecountries.Slovakinternetuserssearchforthe
keyword Turkey more often than Egypt and Dubai.
Turkey is popular for Slovaks due to Turkish history
and monuments, natural attractions such as sand and
snow, Turkish gastronomy, Turkish bath (hammam),
210 | Academica Turistica, Year 14,No. 2,December 2021

PatrikKajzar etal. UsingGoogle TrendsinInternational Tourism
Figure5
GoogleTrends
DataforTurkey,
Egypt,and Dubai
for Czech Internet
Users Searching
Figure6
GoogleTrends
DataforTurkey,
Egypt,and Dubai
for Slovak Internet
Users Searching
Figure7 Google TrendsDataforTurkey(darkgray),
Egypt(medium gray), andDubai(lightgray)
forCzechSubregionsInternetUsersSearching
the sea’s beauty led by the Blue Lagoon, and because,
compared to other holiday destinations, the ratio of
price and quality of services offered makes Turkey a
veryattractivedestination.
We can also find in Google Trends an analysis for
searching compared by subregions in a specific coun-
try.AccordingtoFigure7,wecanseethatthekeyword
Dubai is a much more frequent keyword for search-
inginPraguebetween2010and2019,perhapsbecause
PraguehasthehighestaveragesalaryandDubairanks
among the more luxurious destinations where you fly
fromtheCzechRepublic,mainlyinwinterandspring.
TensofthousandsofCzechstraveltoDubaieveryyear.
These are mainly tourists whose numbers have been
increasing over the long term. This is also reflected
in the establishment of four direct lines per day. The
keywordTurkeyisamuchmorefrequentkeywordfor
searchinginthePilsenandSouthMoraviaregion,and
the keyword Egypt is a much more frequent keyword
for searchingin otherregionsofthe Czech Republic.
InthecaseofSlovakinternetusers,noFigure8was
inserted,becausethekeywordTurkeyisthemostfre-
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Patrik Kajzar etal. UsingGoogleTrends inInternational Tourism
Table1 Most Popular Countries for Longer Trips Abroad for Czechs (4 and More Nights) in Thousands
Country         
Croatia         
Slovakia         
Italy         
Greece         
Austria         
Egypt       n.a  
Spain         
Bulgaria       n.a  
Hungary       n.a. n.a. 
Turkey       n.a.  
Portugal         
D u b a i n . a .n . a .     
Notes BasedondatafromtheCzechStatisticalOffice(https://www.czso.cz).
quent keyword for searching in all regionsof the Slo-
vak Republic between 2010 and 2019. It is no surprise
that Turkey is a popular destination for the Slovaks,
andthisisconfirmedbyTable2.Slovakholidaymak-
ers will also pay extra for five-star all-inclusive hotels
and comfortable air travel, which is similar to Czech
tourists.Turkeyoffersaverygoodselectionofservices
andqualityresortswithcomfort,whichsomeSlovaks
arewillingtopayfor,butitstilldoesnotreachthepop-
ularity of Croatia,obviously.
EvaluationofStatisticalData
WewillnowcompareGoogleTrendsinformationwith
official statistics provided by the Czech Statistical Of-
fice and the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic.
Wecanseethemostpopularcountriesforlongertrips
abroadfor theCzechs (4andmore nights)in Table 1.
Themostpopularcountriesforlongertripsabroad
fortheCzechsareCroatia,Slovakia,Italy,Greece,Aus-
tria, Egypt, Spain, Bulgaria, and Hungary. The num-
ber of trips changes every year. For twenty years now,
Croatiahasbeenthemostpopulardestinationforthe
Czechs. Only once, in 2015, did Slovakia put Croatia
in second place. The Czechs went on trips abroad in
2015 to anincreased extent,despite the economicdif-
ficultiesofGreeceandothersoutherncountriesorthe
waveofmigration.ThegrowthinSlovakia’spopularity
in2015wasinfluencedbyseveralfactors,includingthe
reduced price of fuel, attractive offer of tourism enti-
ties and geopolitical changes in the world, which en-
couragedtourismtoneighbouringcountries,Slovakia
and Germany. Italy belongs to the third most popu-
lar countries for the Czechs: around 500–600 thou-
sand trips every year were realized. You can get to the
beachinItalybycarin8hours.Othertouristsprefer
theAlps,wheretheyareontheshoresofLakeGarda,
combining swimming with mountain hiking. Lovers
of ancient monuments and good food will also enjoy
holidays in Italy.
WhydotheCzechsgotoCroatiainlargenumbers
everyyear?TheCzechshavebeenfascinatedwiththe
sea and there is a long history of the Czechs travel-
ling to Croatia, one that extends well beyond the past
decade. Moreover, a lot of Croatian places are places
with intense Czech ‘touches.’ Magical Dubrovnik was
painted, among others, by the Czech impressionist
Antonín Slavíček. Croatia is popular mainly due to
its availability, not only in terms of distance but also
in price and language. The Croatian language is close
to Czech. The journey by car to Croatia takes about
8 to 12 hours; if you leave South Moravia and go to
the south of the country, then you can reach your
212 | Academica Turistica, Year14,No. 2,December 2021

PatrikKajzar etal. UsingGoogle TrendsinInternational Tourism
Table2 Most Popular Countries for Longer Trips Abroad for Slovaks (4 and More Nights) in Thousands
Country         
Czechia         
Croatia         
Italy         
Turkey         
Austria         
Bulgaria         
Hungary     n.a. n.a.   
Greece         
Spain    –  –   
P o r t u g a l 
E g y p t          
Dubai – –    – –  
Notes Based on data from the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic (https://slovak.statistics.sk).
destination in 6 hours. Also, bus trips to Croatia are
organized in large numbers. Whereas in the past the
Czechs went to Croatia only for swimming in the sea
and sunbathing, today they are also exploring. Every
guide to Croatia recommends visiting not only the
popular city of Split but also the largest city on the
Istrianpeninsula, Pula, thehistoriccity of Trogir,etc.
AccordingtoasurveybytheUniversityofRijekain
2018, the Czechs spend an average of 390 kunas a day
inCroatia,whichisnotmuchcomparedtotheBritish
who spend an averageof 915 kunas (Rogulj, 2019).
Now we will compare data from Google Trends
with data from the Statistical Office of the Slovak Re-
public. From the perspective of Slovaks, we can say
thatthemostpopularcountriesforlongertripsabroad
are similar to those for the Czechs, except Turkey.
Croatia remains a top holiday destination for Slovak
tourists;onlyin2018didSlovaktouristsvisittheCzech
Republic more. The same situation is related to the
third place of Italy, likewise a popular destination for
Slovaks. Greece is far less popular from the perspec-
tive of Slovak tourists. The difference is more than
370 thousand longer trips in favour of Czech tourists.
Compared to the Czechs, the Slovaks are even more
conservative in the way they spend their holidays –
while the Czechs, although relatively slowly, are also
beginning to lean towards the concept of sports hol-
idays, Slovaks strongly prefer a relaxing style of holi-
day. The Czech Republic will remain the most visited
neighbouring country for the Slovaks. The common
past and language closeness still attract many Slovaks
toholiday here.
We can see the most popular countries for longer
tripsabroadfortheSlovaks(4andmorenights)inTa-
ble 2.
ComparingDataUsingSpearman’sRank
Correlation
We have used Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient
dealing with the first hypothesis: There is a depen-
dence on the number of visitors to the same coun-
triesinthecaseofstaysabroadofCzechandSlovak
tourists according to official statistics. Spearman cor-
relation coefficient corr (x,y) = 0.46666667 with the
null correlation null hypothesis:t(8) = 1.49241, with a
two-sidedp-valueof0.1739.Theresultisthat h0 can-
not be rejected at a significance level of 0.05, so the
orderintravellingtothesamecountriesfortheCzech
andSlovaktouristsisdifferent.
The second hypothesis was that there is a correla-
tion betweendata fromofficial statistics whereCzech
andSlovaktouristswentandwhattheyweresearching
Academica Turistica, Year 14,No. 2,December 2021 |21 3

Patrik Kajzar etal. UsingGoogleTrends inInternational Tourism
on Google Search. We will start with Czech tourists:
corr(x,y)=–0.00909091withthenullcorrelationnull
hypothesis:t(9)=–0.0272739,withap-valueof0.9788
on both sides. Based on these findings h0 cannot be
rejectedatasignificancelevelof0.05andtherewasno
evidenceofdependencebetweenwheretheywentand
whattheywerelookingfor.
We will continue with Slovak tourists: corr (x,y)
= 0.18181818 with the null correlation null hypothesis:
t(10)=0.584705,withap-valueof0.5717onbothsides,
so the conclusion is the same as for the Czech Re-
public: therewasnoevidenceofdependencebetween
wheretheywentandwhattheywerelookingfor.
In this paper, two research questions were identi-
fied. According to the first research question, ‘Is the
popularityofthedestinationsdifferentforCzechsand
Slovaksinmorethan4cases?’wecanstatethatthe
choice of the most popular countries for longer trips
abroad for the Czechs and the Slovaks differs only in
onecase,andthatisinEgyptandTurkey,respectively.
Basedontheresearch,wecanconcludethatthepopu-
larity ofthe destinationsissimilar for theCzechsand
theSlovaks.Asfarasthesecondresearchquestion,‘Is
GoogleTrendsdatasimilarforsearchingselectedkey-
words for Czech and Slovak internet users?’ we can
statethatGoogleTrendsdataisdifferentforselected
keywordsforCzechandSlovakinternetusers.Forex-
ample, from the point of view of the Czechs, the key-
word Greece is more frequent in searches than Croa-
tiaandBulgaria.FortheSlovaks,thekeywordBulgaria
ismorefrequentinsearchesthanCroatiaandGreece.
Ontheotherhand,thekeywordItalyismorefrequent
thanSpainandPortugalinsearchesfortheCzechsand
theSlovaks.
Inthispapertwohypotheseswerealsostated.The
first hypothesis was there was a dependence on the
number of visitors to the same countries in the case
ofstaysabroadofCzechandSlovaktouristsaccording
to official statistics. h0 cannot be rejected at a signif-
icance level of 0.05, so the order in travelling to the
same countries for the Czech and Slovak tourists is
different. The second hypothesis was that there is a
correlation between data from official statistics where
Czech and Slovak tourists went and what they were
searching on Google Search. h0 cannot be rejected
at a significance level of 0.05 and there was no evi-
dence of dependence between where they went and
whattheywerelookingfor.
Why are search results different compared to the
realbehaviourofthepopulationwhenselectingades-
tinationfortheholiday?Theanswertothesequestions
is not simple and of course varies from person to per-
son.However,astravelisbecominganincreasingphe-
nomenoninoursociety,itdoesnotleavepsychologists
and sociologists cold, either. It affects many factors:
Papatheodorou (2006) says that destination choice
has always been an important aspect in tourism lit-
eratureandtherearevariousfactorsinfluencingtravel
decisions. According to Venkatesh (2006), the factors
constitute culture, travel motivations, finances, and
previousexperience.Travelmotivationsformaninte-
gralpartoftravelbehaviour andhavebeen widelyre-
searchedand applied in tourism marketingstrategies.
George (2004) writes that it is not easy to understand
and have adequate knowledge about the motivations
affectingthe travel behaviour of tourists. In a very in-
spiring way, he describes the motivation of travel in
theworkoftheFrenchauthorA.deBotton,TheArtof
Travel (2010), where he reflects on the fact that travel
as an active activity hides philosophical problems, i.e.
questionsaboutwhyandhowweshouldtravel,towhat
extenttravelchangesus, and so on.
Conclusion
ThisarticleisdevotedtotheresearchofusingGoogle
Trends in International Tourism. Attention has been
focused on analysing the behaviour of Czech and
Slovak tourists travelling to seaside resorts between
2010–2019. The purpose of this article was also to
compare the analysis of Google Trends with statisti-
cal data about the travel of Czech and Slovak tourists
to the seaside resorts. The main aim of the research
described in the paper was to find some relations be-
tweenstatisticaldataanddatafromGoogleTrends.
GoogleTrendshasabigadvantagebecausewecan
findsometrendsinsearchingorplanningsometourist
holidays in the actual period, but we need to wait
more months to find statistics that are published by
official statistical offices in the Czech or Slovak Re-
publics. Based on the research from official statistics,
214 | Academica Turistica, Year 14,No. 2,December 2021

PatrikKajzar etal. UsingGoogle TrendsinInternational Tourism
we can conclude that the popularity of the destina-
tions is similar for the Czechs and the Slovaks. What
is the situation in searching selected keywords by the
Google search engine for Czech and Slovak internet
users? We have found that Google Trends data is dif-
ferentfor selectedkeywordsfor Czech and Slovak in-
ternet users. Google Trends is a useful tool that does
not always accurately reflect the popularity of a desti-
nation compared to statistics. For example, from the
perspective of the Czechs, Croatia is a top destina-
tion, but Greece has surpassed Croatia in the most
frequent keyword for searching for Czechs. A simi-
lar situation is found with the Slovaks. On the other
hand,GoogleTrendscorrespondstostatisticsfordes-
tinationsinItaly,Spain,andPortugal.
We have used Spearman’s rank correlation coeffi-
cientindealingwiththehypotheses:thereisadepen-
denceonthenumberofvisitorstothesamecountries
inthecaseofstaysabroadofCzechandSlovaktourists
accordingtoofficialstatistics.Thepriorityintravelling
tothesamecountriesfortheCzechandSlovaktourists
isdifferent.Thesecondhypothesiswasthattherewasa
correlation between data from official statistics where
Czech and Slovak tourists went and what they were
searchingonGoogleSearch.Therewasnoevidenceof
dependence between where they went and what they
werelookingfor.
Why are search results different compared to the
realbehaviourofthepopulationwhenselectingades-
tination for the holiday? Destination selection is a
complex process that is influenced by many factors.
When choosing a destination, we are increasingly in-
fluenced by the safety aspect of the destination, and
also by the neighbourhood effect. In 2015, for exam-
ple,Slovakiabecamethemostpopulardestinationfor
Czech tourists. The choice of tourist destination also
affects the image of the destination. The importance
of the destination image can be seen in the possibil-
ityofinfluenceonthedecision-makingprocessofthe
potential visitor and subsequent consumer behaviour
(experience,evaluation,satisfaction,loyalty).Thecri-
teria that affect the choice of destination can also in-
clude a tradition of destination. (One hundred years
ago, Czech tourists were frequent guests in Croatian
resorts. They built several hotels themselves and en-
thusiasticallyrecommendedholidaytripstotheAdri-
atic). Along with the quality of the service, the price
is the basic factor influencing the client’s choice. For
destination management, which needs to attract the
customer to its place of work, ideally repeatedly, and
keepitforaslongaspossible,itisalsonecessaryto
know the customer’s needs, as well as the process of
choosingadestination.
Some potential directions of future researchin us-
ing Google Trends in tourism might include among
others the following topics: using Google Trends of
tourists from the Visegrad Group-comparative anal-
ysis, and Google Trends analysis of searching infor-
mationaboutPraguetopvisitingplacesbetween2015–
2019.
Acknowledgments
Thispaperwassupported bytheMinistryofEducation,
Youth,andSports within theinstitutionalsupport of the
long-termconceptualdevelopmentofaresearchorgani-
zationin2021.
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