Felix Jeschke - Tourism in Bratislava

In my experience, Bratislava does not have a good reputation among the Central European city tourists. Used to the Baroque splendour, old-world charm or exciting cosmopolitanism of cities such as Vienna, Prague, Kraków or Budapest, most must be disappointed by Bratislava’s tiny – if pretty – centre, and such disfiguring elements as a four-lane motorway running right through it and onto the main bridge over the Danube (appropriately unimaginatively, one might say, named Nový Most). For many international tourists who “do” both Vienna and Bratislava, the cities must seem like two unlikely siblings, despite their long and close cultural, economic and infrastructural links. In the popular consciousness of many, Vienna arguably represents the multicultural history of the Habsburg Empire, colourful and somewhat morbid; Bratislava is often represented as a relict of socialism, interesting only because of the greyness symbolized by the view of Petržalka from the top of the “UFO tower.”
Based on some work I have been doing on the the notion of the German tourist in Prague, I will research the tourist discourses in Bratislava. Twenty years after the ‘Changes,’ it has become a significant tourist attraction. In a 2007 rankings, Bratislava was the 150th most popular city destination in the world with 500,000 visitors, ahead of famous architectural pearls such as Oxford and Dubrovnik.1 My previous experience of travelling to Bratislava suggests that the official tourism bodies are following the general trend to portray state socialism as a historical aberration, and hark back to the Habsburg and inter-war periods in the tourist presentation of their city (that the little sightseeing train was named Prešporáčik is a case in point). This touristic presentation thus clashes with the image of ‘grey socialist Bratislava’ outlined above. It also includes an effort to touristically align Bratislava with Vienna in order to make it into the “Little Big City” its official motto proclaims – the little Habsburg brother of Vienna. For my piece, I will further investigate tourist publications to see whether my impression can be substantiated. Most of my research will be taken up by interviewing tourists in the streets of the Old Town, in order to see what their motivations were to come (including whether it is a free-standing trip or if are they visiting the city as part of a bigger tour), what places they have been visiting, what their general impression of the city is and if it has been changed by the visit.
I hope that this research might tell us more about the image of Bratislava perpetuated at home and abroad. In the study of ‘ethnicity,’ it is often forgotten that tourists form by far the largest contingent of non-Slovaks in Bratislava, and also the most visible one. Personally, I disagree with both notions of Bratislava mentioned here: neither the disparaging foregrounding of its socialist architecture nor a false evocation of pre-war history does this fascinating city any justice. It could be said that in urban discourses, the discourse of tourism forms a mainstream; however, this mainstream can only be criticized if one studies it.