There will undoubtedly be a new interest in vacations to these countries and some will reap considerable benefit from the new influx of tourists and their cash. The proviso is that they have the transport infrastructure of airports, air routes, railways and roads in place, together with adequate facilities and hotel/restaurant amenities to cope with an ever more sophisticated European and global tourist.
The communist era days when hotels in Eastern Block resorts could rely on a steady clientele of unsophisticated East German factory workers prepared to accept unsophisticated or shoddy service are long gone.
My recent travels in Eastern Europe as the guest of Enjoy Slovakia have shown me that the tourism industries in countries like Slovakia have already made great efforts to upgrade their amenities and facilities in order to cater for the hoped-for tourist influx from the West.
Prices are currently noticeably cheaper in Eastern Europe and should remain to for the immediate future at least, until these countries convert their currencies to the Euro. At that stage we can expect a rise of up to 30% in prices if they follow the unfortunate precedent set by those States that have already ditched their own currency to convert to the Euro. Let us hope that they do not follow that path.
2004 is bargain time for Western travellers going East. On my visit to Slovakia, I was delighted at the quality of hotel accommodation, the cuisine and the wide range of Slovak beers and wines. The latter deserve serious scrutiny and if I were the wine buyer for Fortnum & Mason or Harrods I would be hotfooting it over to sample the vintages from vintners like Pavelka, who have done much to raise the quality of Slovak wines in recent years.
The Czech Republic and Hungary, Slovakia's neighbours, are already reaping the benefits of quality tourism, with Prague and Budapest acquiring a growing reputation among a public ever eager to find new destinations. I shall be surprised if Bratislava, Slovakia's delightful historic capital, does not become equally popular. It has all the charm and beauty of Prague in miniature without embarrassment of hordes of loutish visitors seeking booze and women on cheap short break vacations.
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