Katarína Trnovská
Miniatures of significant monuments or famous personalities as known today started emerging as late as after World War II, in the times when tourism was being hugely popularised. It was mainly small objects (postcards, spoons, bowls, etc.) that, through their form, prompted tourists to collect things they bought on their travels. The toy, too, was in the past sold as a souvenir. However, it was a product that represented mainly traditional technology and material of a given region. Today, tourism industry is systematically analysing specific, targeted segments of tourists so that it could develop and direct its marketing campaigns accordingly and, ultimately, make profit. As one of the current trends is to travel with children, toys have become a separate category of souvenir merchandise. In this article, the authoress introduces several successful examples from our lands as well as from abroad.