ABSTRACT
In 1967 Constantinos Doxiadis made a forecast based on demographic prognoses and the rate of urbanisation. He said that one day nothing more would exist except the city – Ecumenopolis. Weekends and holidays are the right time for systematic tourism as long as the destination is at a reasonable distance, for example, within the metropolitan commuter belt. The paradoxical thesis is manifested by the statements that metropolisation favours the development of nature-based tourism and that nature-based tourism lets metropolitan inhabitants better understand and protect nature to save it for future generations. Scientific progress, the development of knowledge, technology, culture and growth of welfare create a need for people to constantly update their image of the city and country. There are scientific, statistical, economic and demographic reasons why it is necessary to distinguish between cities and villages and urban and rural areas. The process of urban sprawl into rural areas, sometimes in a completely uncontrollable manner, has always existed.
