**2. Materials and Methods**

Data for analysis were downloaded from the English-language TripAdvisor site [49]. It is the world's largest aggregator of reviews of tourist products visited monthly by 490 million users. It contains 760 million reviews and opinions of 8.3 million accommodations, restaurants, attractions and excursions, airlines and cruises. TripAdvisor operates in 49 markets in 28 languages [50]. With the help of the Web Scrapper package [51], all opinions from the 'Things to do' category were collected regarding places located in the Tatra National Park (attractions that had at least 10 reviews). In total, they were 624 reviews in 10 categories: 2 mountain ponds, 3 valleys, 2 peaks, 2 waterfalls and the Tatra Mountains as a whole (Table 1). The oldest opinion was from April 2011 and the latest from September 2019. The number of experiences by reviewers was very high. The average number of reviews written by one person was 155.24, and the median was 41. The average number of likes received by one person was 72.82 and the median was 21. The maximum number of reviews about TNP made by one person was 6, with an average of 1.70.


**Table 1.** Distribution of opinions regarding the 'Things to do' category for Tatra National Park.

A number of software packages were used in the data analysis. The Statistica 13.0 package was used for a Text Mining analysis. Tag clouds were made with the QSR NVivo Pro 11.0 package. Grouping of words (co-occurrence analysis) and coding of experiences were performed using the KH Coder package.

#### **3. Results**

This section is divided by subheadings. It provides a concise and precise description of the experimental results, their interpretation as well as the experimental conclusions that can be drawn.

#### *3.1. Identifying the Most Common Words in Reviews*

In the first stage of the analysis, in order to identify the most common words in opinions, the Text Mining procedure was performed. It consists in counting the most frequently repeated words. The analysis used the list EnglishStopList.txt ("a", "the", "and" etc.) for words which were omitted in the analysis. A procedure of lemmatization was also performed, which involves grouping inflected forms of words to the dictionary form. In this way, different grammatical forms of the same word were combined into one category. Thus, 149 words were obtained, which appeared in at least 1% (62) of opinions. Table 2 presents the 52 most frequently repeated words in the reviews, and Figure 1 illustrates them in the form of a tag cloud.


**Table 2.** List of the 52 most frequent words in reviews.

**Figure 1.** The cloud of tags for Tatra National Park reviews (source: own research).

#### *3.2. Identification of the Most Common Problems in Opinions—Quality Analysis*

In order to identify the problems most frequently appearing in opinions, a co-occurrence network analysis using the KH Coder package was performed. The analysis took into account 124 most frequently repeated words in opinions that appeared in at least 1% of opinions.

The co-occurrence network of words analysis allows to plot a network of relationships between words with a high degree of co-occurrence. These words were connected with each other by lines (Figure 2). In order to determine the mutual position of words, the co-occurrence network of words uses a method developed by Thomas Fruchterman and Edward Reingold [52]. Words being close together does not always mean that they often occur together. It is important that these words are connected with each other by lines. As a result of the analysis, 5 groups of words co-existed simultaneously in the analyzed opinions.

**Figure 2.** Co-occurrence network of frequently occurring words (source: own research).

The five most recurring problems are discussed below, with some examples of opinions.

The first group of opinions contains words such as mountain, place, view, great, climb, place visit, amaz (ing). It relates to sensory experiences related to mountains appearing during climbing and visiting unusual places in the Tatra.

*It was really amazing trip to this beautiful place (* ... *), adorable place (* ... *) you will see this breath-taking view! The Lake with crystal pure blue-green water, surrounded by mountains, like dream or fantasy.* (Nastya\_Lampy, St. Petersburg, Russia, 5 \*)—Morskie Oko (lake)

Morskie Oko is one of the main destinations for trips in the Tatra Mountains. It is the largest lake in the Tatra (area 34.94 ha), of postglacial origin, located in the Valley of the Rybi Potok at an altitude of 1395 m a.s.l. at the foot of Mi ˛eguszowieckie Szczyty (2435 m a.s.l.). This location determines the unique landscape that surrounds it. The lake is relatively easily accessible because an asphalt road that leads to it from a car park (8.5 km), which can be covered on foot or on bulls pulled by horses.

*One of the most incredible places I had seen on the planet. Beautiful mountains, amazing lakes and everything in an easy access.* (Sara P, Barbacena, MG, 5 \*)—Tatra Mountains

The Chocholowska Valley (Dolina Chochołowska), with a tourist chalet (schronisko) located at its end, is the second place that sees a huge interest of tourists in TNP. It is the longest and largest valley in the Tatra (approx. 35 km2, 10 km long). You can get to the chalet on foot or in a highlander carriage. The valley is surrounded by a number of peaks, including Grze´s (1653 m a.s.l.), to which the popular trail leads:

*Dolina Chocholowska (* ... *) is the most appealing part of the Polish Tatra Mountains. The Dolina Chocholowska moutain hotel is arguably the most impressive. The views from Grzes (Mt.) are fantastic, spanning a 360 degree vista of the western Tatra Mountains.* (BordRestaurant, Cameron Park, California, 5 \*)—Chocholowska Valley

The second group of reviews contains the words: hors (e), carriag (e), beautus, peopl (e), crowd, trail, zlotus. It mainly concerns trips to Morskie Oko, during which many people take the opportunity to ride a horse-drawn carriage. This road is usually very crowded and tourists are forced to make many more unexpected charges for them (in PLN zlotys). Emotional experiences dominate here.

*Overcrowded Tourist Trap. The whole experience is a bitter one, mostly because of the 10,000 visitors per day. You park 9 km away for 25 PLN. You pay 5 PLN to access the park. You pay 50 PLN to go up in a shabby smelly uncomfortable horse kart and 30 PLN for same trip back* ... *and you arrive at what sounds and look like an overcrowded municipal pool: too many people, too much noise, too many picnics.* (Fred B., Nice, France, 2\*)—Morskie Oko

Morskie Oko is the most popular tourist destination in the Tatra. During the two holiday months, it is visited by up to 0.5 million tourists, which causes overcrowding and recreational conflict:

*Crowds Spoil Everything. Unfortunately this quaint little town and the stunning mountain views are spoiled by the interminable tra*ffi*c, the jams that come with it and the overwhelming number of people. The town center (Zakopane) is nothing more than a tourist trap—expensive shops and restaurants line the street and all you can see is the never-ending crowds of people in front, beside and behind you.* (annal 335, Brantford, Canada, 2\*)—Tatra Mountains

The accommodation and tourist emission center in the Tatra Mountains is Zakopane, a city with less than 30,000 inhabitants, where ca. 30,000 tourist accommodation places are officially registered in the Tatra district [53] and probably another 30,000 beds are provided unofficially [54]. This huge number of tourists in such a small area causes very emotional feelings in visitors. A lot of emotions are aroused by the view of horses pulling overloaded highlander carriages:

*When you are walking up or down you constantly see the horses struggling to go up or down the path. It's animal cruelty at its finest. The horses had their tongues out, foam around their mouths and any individual could tell they were struggling. It was an unpleasant heart breaking sight. Before entering the park they have a sign that no more then 12 individuals should be on a carriage or it strains the horses. Of course almost every carriage we saw had more than 12! It was ridiculous! I wanted to quickly leave just because of how the horses were being treated.* (Joselyn 715, Chicago, 3 \*)— Black Pound

Despite the supervision that TNP exercises over the carriage of horse-drawn carriages, this situation is widely reflected in the media. Cases of horses falling from exhaustion are described, carriages with tourists are overloaded, animals quickly reach the slaughterhouse, because their price is relatively low compared to the revenues obtained by highlanders (górale) [55].

The next—third—group of words includes: take, hour, walk, touris, entranc (e), park. Opinions containing these words relate mainly to descriptions of walking tours in the Tatra National Park. Cognitive experiences dominate here.

The city of Zakopane is a center from which tourists take buses to the outlet of the valleys, where the entrances to the National Park are located, with ticket outlets:

*Entry to the valley at the very busy road junction in Kiry village. Entry tickets are sold here. There's a few junctions with other long distance trails, or there are short distance trail, of about 1 h each, that will let tourists explore some attractions on the side of the main course of the valley.* (endrju\_74, Ipswich, United Kingdom, 5 \*)—Chocholowska Valley

Admission tickets are moderate (2.5 PLN—approx. 0.5 EUR), and the carriage ride is significantly shortened by a rather monotonous march through the valley:

*We took a bus from the centrum to Koscielisko. The Park is really lengthy to walk and there is an entrance fees which is very nominal. You can take horse cart if you are looking for a quick ride. Very nice view with lot of fresh air, caves, river streams.* (Krishnakumar B, Michalowice, 4 \*)— Ko´scieliska Valley

Some places in the Tatra are less frequented and require better physical condition. Black Pond is such a place, to which a steep trail from Morskie Oko leads:

*This trip is a fantastic experience, the black pond (Czarny Staw, Fekete tó) is a hidden jewel of the Zakopane region. Besides this is a place which is horribly tough to reach but you do not need mountain climbing experience or an outstanding physical condition. The way is quite steep in some places and quite tiring.* (975 Katalin, Varpalota, Hungary, 5 \*)

The next group of opinions consists of the words: worth, recommend, quit, still, real, minute. They relate to the assessment of attractiveness and rank of tourist attractions visited (cognitive experiences).

For experienced mountain tourists who have visited the Alps, the Tatra Mountains may seem unattractive:

*If you've traveled to other mountain ranges in the world, and seen their lakes, then Morskie Oko isn't worth the e*ff*ort. If you're in the area, I'd recommend going, but to travel here form the Austrian or Swiss Alps, or even Slovenia, would be a bit of a let-down.* (dacky2, Tromso, Norway, 3 \*)

However, for other people, the same landscape seen from the road to Morskie Oko, despite the large number of people, is amazing and worth recommending:

*Had a fantastic day hiking up to morskie oko, (* ... *) the view was amazing and well worth it. It was fairly busy, quite a few people. Would definitely recommend this to everyone.* (eloiseb113, Bournemouth, UK, 5 \*)

The last group of opinions is dominated by words such as weather, earl (i) y, summer, start, before. These are recommendations on how to organize mountain hikes (cognitive experiences):

*A walk trip to the famous Valley of 5 Ponds. It is exceptional experience. You would go the route to Morskie Oko pond—then when you will see Mickiewicz waterfall on the right you need to turn right and start ascending in beautiful Dolina Roztoki Valley. Check weather forecast before climbing Szpiglasowy. It is a bit demanding route.* (Michal M, Warsaw, Poland, 5 \*)

One of the most common tips that appear in this group is the need to check the weather forecast before going to the mountains and start the trip early in the morning:

*The hike in normal weather conditions can be done in about 4, 5 h. We started our hike a little before 9 am and it was already like a highway to Rysy, so I recon, the best experience would be to start the hike around 7 am or even a little bit earlier.* (jurgisk\_lv, Grobina, Latvia, 4 \*)
