Jan A. Wendt

Abstract

The purpose of the following paper is to debate the cross-border shopping tourism activities taking place at the external borders of the European Union in Poland and Romania. The work focuses on a comparative analyses of three borders from Poland and three borders from Romania. They had a similar history, underwent a period of political and economic transformation and both countries joined the EU in a short space of time. The research is composed from a theoretical and empirical approach. The theoretical research results show similarities in the evolutions of cross-border shopping tourism activities from both countries. The empirical research updates the situation of cross-border shopping tourism activities. The results show a different evolution of this kind of tourism activities, which has been more predominant at the Polish borders than at the Romanian border, mainly motivated by the stronger market differences existing between Poland and its neighbours, than between Romania and its neighbours. The economic motivators are still strong with a focus of customers on better price benefits and discount opportunities. The leisure elements, although not predominant are present, mainly in Poland, the customers being mainly motivated by the pleasure emerged from the shopping activity. In terms of shopping, the dominant role is played by the shopping, in their old forms (bazaar, local market or a transformed department stores) or their new forms (commercial centres or malls), increasingly incorporating also elements of leisure.

Keywords: cross-border shopping, Romania, Poland, border, development, trading, tourism, external border of the European Union

Delia Bar-Kołelis [deliabar@kolelis.com], Institute of Geography, Faculty of Oceanography and Geography University of Gdańsk Bażyńskiego 4, 80-309 Gdańsk: Poland
Jan A. Wendt [jan.wendt@ug.edu.pl], Uniwersytet Gdański, Wydział Oceanografii i Geografii

Abstract

This article deals with changes in political boundaries, border regimes and border policies that have taken place in the area between the Baltic and the Mediterranean, which corresponds in the broadest sense with the term ‘Europe-in-between’. An important generator of problems here has been the multi-ethnic composition of the population, a source of diffuse political processes often even giving rise to conflict. Border policies have served as indicators of the relationships pertaining between countries, though they have an even broader exponent relating EU policies and peacekeeping missions, among other things, and thus offering nothing less than a laboratory for geopolitics both old and new. In the three parts present here, the first represents a short theoretical discussion concerning national systems, while the second offers an empirical analysis of border changes and policies in the area stretching from Kaliningrad to the Bosphorus and Trieste. Finally, a third, synthetic, part discusses recent challenges to border policies in the area in question posed by processes of European integration, as set against the new security paradigms of our era. Particular emphasis is placed on strong immigration pressure, pan-Turkish strategic aspirations, the Balkan area and its policies and the relationship between the EU and Russia.

Keywords: border politics, border changes, Central and Eastern Europe, security, new geopolitics

Jernej Zupančič [jernej.zupancic@ff.uni-lj.si], Department of Geography, Faculty of Arts University of Ljubljana Aškerčeva 2, SI-1000 Ljubljana: Slovenia
Jan A. Wendt [jan.wendt@ug.edu.pl], Uniwersytet Gdański, Wydział Oceanografii i Geografii
Alexandru Ilieş [ilies@uoradea.ro], Department of Geography, Tourism and Territorial Planning University of Oradea Universitatii st., 410087, Oradea: Romania