Economic Opportunities in International Tourism
Mosaics of Hungary's Experience

by Soós Károly Attila Ph.D. ^[1]

abstract of article presented at the XV International Conference "Danube - River of Cooperation" (October 27 - 31 2004)

Hungary: National Tourism Development Strategy

www.gkm.hu/dokk/main/gkm/turizmus/nts/nts.ht
mwww.gkm.hu

Five Main Objectives

1. Long-term sustainability and profitability
   • Innovation, quality of services
   • Improving circumstances for entreprises: tax incentives (actually rural tourism only)
   • Realistic pricing
   • Consumer protection
2. Access of Tourists to Hungary
   • Roads
   • Bus tourism: infrastructure for ?stopping? tourist buses crossing Hungary
   • Bicycle roads
   • Railway modernisation
   • Improving waterways for tourist ships and boating
   • Opening more airports
   • "Comfort feeling": border crossing, public security, cleanness of cities, etc.
3. Developing Priority Sectors of Tourism and special attractions
   • Sectors: congress tourism, events (e. g., Formula-1), health tourism (medical baths, etc.), religious tourism, castles, fortresses
   • Museums, exhibitions
   • Exploit regional traditions (folk art, gastronomy)
   • Exploit natural opportunities: "pusta", forests, rivers, lakes, hunting
   • Exploit mystique of 1100 years of Hungary
4. Developping Human Resources
   • Improving formation for the tourism industry
   • Languages
   • Improving the population's approach to tourism and tourists
5. Improving Coordination Mechanisms
   • Improving the representativeness of tourism companies' associations
   • Improving the work of regional tourism offices
   • Improving national level legislation, administrative coordination
   • Improving collective advertising activities

International Market Research Results
www.itthon.hu

Research from Hungarian point of view: how to attract more tourists?
Italy, 2003
Germany, 2000
(Largely business travel, neglected here)

Purpose of travel to Hungary

• Germans: largely for recreation. All generations, except people with small children (the latter go to western countries)
• Italians: for recreation, they do not go abroad (and Hungary is cold for them). Culture (history, arts and nature, unusual circumstances)
• Both Italians and Germans: exploiting low prices
• Highest income groups from Germany do not come to us

Italians Interviewed: Fears, Negative Things

• Those who had not visited Hungary: physical distance, poverty and unfriendliness of people, lack of enjoying life
• Those who had visited Hungary: only the unknown language
• Important reason for negative opinions and refusal to visit: insufficient advertisement. If people do not see advertisements on TV they think that the country is poor and uninteresting

What do Italians find interesting and attractive in Hungary?

• Interesting in general: mostly Budapest, Danube, culture, architecture, lake Balaton; some Italians also mention medical baths, the Great Hungarian Plain, castles
• Those who had not yet visited but want to visit Hungary: Natural beauty and interest, sport opportunities, cheapness (often exaggerating the latter)

What improves, what worsens Hungary's image for Italians?

• improves
  • Budapest
  • folk art
  • culture
  • tradition
  • hospitality
• worsens
  • gambling
  • horse riding

Those Italians Who Visited Hungary, Why Did Do So?

• Mostly, previous visitors proposed itt o them. With the visit, the image of Hungary changes positively.
• A similar observation in Germany: almost half of people having recently travelled in Hungary want to come back in the next few years

Most important positive and negative surprises of Italian visitors

• positive
  • visibly a country on the way of development
  • friendly people
  • quiet country where life can be enjoyed
• negative
  • few monuments
  • lack of services around the Balaton lake (having expected Lago di Garda level)

Main marketing task in Italy: changing the grey and dull picture

• Finding attractive particularities (like the Eiffel Tower for Paris)
• Showing nice Budapest panoramas
• Creating the image of the country of medical baths

Main marketing task in Germany

• A country traditionally visited by Germans
• A country ideal for recreation
• A country with services of high quality with low prices

[1] Scientific Counsellor at the Institute of Economics of the Hunagrian Academy of Sciences, Budapest

This article was downloaded / printed from www.danube-cooperation.com