CHRISTMAS TIME AND AUTHENTICITY: EVALUATION OF CHRISTMAS MARKET IN THE TOWN OF CHEB

Christmas is considered as a traditional holiday, but also a time of excessive consumption of various goods and services. During this time, there are various events that are often used to commercialization of culture around the world. Traditional Christmas markets, tak more attention also in the Czech Republic. They came to the Czech Republic from neighboring German-speaking countries. Today, visitors to all major tourist attractions can visit one or several Christmas markets that are thematically different and offer almost everything a visitor may wish for. Smaller towns and municipalities have begun to use this habit. However, the range of these events is smaller and their purpose is mostly for meeting residents each other and for a certain form of PR. Nor is it otherwise in the case of Cheb. The paper compares the evaluation of visitors to the Christmas markets between 2016 and 2017. The aim of the survey is to find out the social and traditionaly cultural value of Christmas markets in both years under review and to compare each other. The data was collected by questioning visitors during the Christmas markets in Cheb. The questionnaire includes questions about the authenticity of markets and the perception of markets through the eyes of visitors. At the same time, the theme of the visit to the market and the way of realization of the visit was also surveyed. A total of 91 visitors were surveyed in 2016 and 122 in 2017. Nearly 80% of visitors are satisfied with markets and less than 60% (NPS) markets are actively recommending to their friends and acquaintances.