GEOTOUR & IRSE 2012.pdf - Fakulta BERG - TUKE

Salgótarján, 04. – 06. 2012
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PAST TEACHERS AND PROFESSIONALS IN MINING -
SPECIALLY S. MIKOVINY - FOR TOURISM
Gejza M. Timčák & Jana Jablonská
Institute of Geotourism, BERG Faculty, Technical University of Košice
e-mail: gejza.timcak@tuke.sk,jana.jablonska@tuke.sk
INTRODUCTION
In some countries professors or famous professionals who left behind a recognizable legacy
are used as an attractor for visiting those parts of the country where the lived and/or worked or
where there are still their artefacts or engineering works. In Slovakia there is a tendency to
neglect these great people and not to use them for tourism related marketing. One reason for
this may be that these places are not prepared to become a tourism destination and do not have
the necessary infrastructure. Nevertheless, such tourism products would support the
development of the area, where these items are located. The paper uses the example of S.
Mikoviny to show a way, how this problem could be tackled.
PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS
Great names from the engineering and science side, like Matthias Belius, Kristof Traugott
Delius, Samuel Mikoviny, József Szabó and others occur in the media only at special
occasions, usually when a book is published, when a conference is devoted to that person or
when there is a jubilee year (birth/death). Even the general public at home is largely unaware
of their significance. Recently a similar “discovery” was made in the USA: whilst everyone
knows T.A. Edison, almost no one seems to know N. Tesla
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19503846). This phenomenon seems to be related
largely to the degree and type of mediatisation. The media are presenting an ever increasing
volume of information that has by now became indigestible, so usually the consumer either
chooses the lightest form of information or some specialized information related to his/her
profession or hobby. Tourism is also a hobby and thus there is space for making such
personalities attractive to tourism clients.
Fig.1a The portrait of S. Mikoviny by L. Steiner, held at Miskolc University (Hungary).
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