Veřejná podpora cestovního ruchu v České republice v kontextu strukturálních fondů EU

This dissertation thesis focuses on the impact of state aid from the EU structural funds in the field of tourism in years 2007 to 2013. The objective of the thesis is to verify whether and how state aid of tourism has contributed to solving market failures in this sector. In the sense of meeting this main objective, the risk of market failure was theoretically expressed and on this basis the author focused on the assessment of the impacts of state aid at the EU level. The allocation of EU funds to tourism amounted to at least EUR 6 193 billion in 2007-2013, with a share of the total allocation allocated by the Czech Republic to the tourism priorities at approximately the EU average. Positive impact of state aid can be identified mainly as regards the investment projects that would not be implemented without the involvement of public funds. However, the ex-post analysis revealed weaknesses, notably the intervention logic that was insufficiently applied on the supported actions, which led to subsequent problems in program implementation. The second major weakness was the poorly resolved financial, socio-economic and environmental sustainability of the supported actions. At the level of the Czech Republic, the results of public support measures are evaluated on the basis of statistical analysis of data on supported projects. The correlation and cluster analysis help searching for the dependence of selected tourism indicators on the amount of state aid; all this is measured in terms of territorial and thematic distribution of supported actions. Using induction, the partial results of the analyzes are associated with the secondary statistical characteristics of the tourism industry. In this context, the author can draw complex conclusions: from a territorial point of view, state aid is directed to larger municipalities with high tourist potential and already developed tourism infrastructure; however, private equity can equally well used in these areas, while market failures would rather addressed in smaller, peripheral communities with undeveloped potential. From the thematic point of view, a considerable contribution of state aid can be found to increase the number, quality and occupancy of accommodation capacities. The most significant impacts of state aid can be seen in the area of revitalization of cultural, historical and technical monuments. To conclude, the results of the dissertation thesis suggest more possibilities of research on state aid in the field of tourism for the following period.