Tourism revenues of Budapest could increase by up to EUR 1 billion

According to mno.hu, tourism revenues of Budapest can increase by up to 1 billion euros, Roland Berger consulting firm’s comparative study of 13 European cities says.

Turizmusonline.hu wrote, citing the study: during the past 5 years, the number of nights spent in Budapest increased by 45%, but the tourism indicators per capita are still low which indicates there is room for further growth.

Among the 13 cities, there is Barcelona, Berlin, Vienna, Lisbon, Bratislava and Prague.

Budapest can become a touristic giant

The results showed that Budapest, based on its features, is capable for become the next touristic giant stepping from an average city destination, following Barcelona or Prague. The Hungarian capital’s value for money is quite high, a visitor can spend a night 17% cheaper here than the average of the examined cities – the portal wrote.

The current Budapest accommodation infrastructure is able to serve the visitors, the occupancy ratio is relatively low, while occupancy rate of luxury hotels is high. The capital’s occupancy ratio is similar to the competitors, but it’s not high enough for the acceleration of bed capacity development. The quality of hostels improved in recent years and community accommodation sharing is also developing.

The growth of urban tourism surpassed the economic growth in recent years; the number of overnight stays, which describe well the turnover of the tourism sector, grew more than the GDP in the examined cities.

At the same time, the growth of tourism is expected because of the economic performance of Budapest. A special segment of professional tourism is filming, in which Budapest performs well: a 300-500-people crew shooting for 3 months can mean up to 30-40 thousand guest nights.

There is room for improvement on the Internet presence

According to the article, Budapest often performs and with good results among the international recommendations, but its Internet presence falls short of its competitors. Regarding the number of posts on touristic attractions, the capital is behind the examined cities, which is partly because of the lack of attractions and partly because of the lack of awareness. The growth of Budapest visibility occurs through spontaneous, personal experience.

The road approach of the capital is well-built, it is directly connected with 58 cities in the air, and it is the laggard among competitors in a narrow sense. The flight connections were restored slowly after the bankruptcy of Malev (the former Hungarian national airlines), the frequency of service is still below the previous ones. For Budapest, the real outbreak would be the development of air transport, mno.hu said.

based on the article of mno.hu
translated by BA

Source: http://mno.hu