Budapest has potential to become top tourism destination

Budapest, February 11 (MTI) – Budapest has the potential to become a top five-star global tourism destination according to the latest survey of consultancy firm BDO Hungary.

The STR Global international monitoring system shows that the average rate in Budapest’s five-star hotels is still among the cheapest, yet the city offers one of the richest architectural, cultural and gastronomical features in Europe.

The average room rate in five-star hotels was 99 euros in Budapest last year, as against 123 euros in Prague, 148 euros in Vienna and 185 euros in Munich. Additionally, rooms were more available in Budapest than in rival cities.

BDO Hotel and Property analyst Peter Gal said in a statement that rival cities spend significant amounts on global marketing and infrastructure development but Hungary has limited resources, so it needs to gain an advantage by positioning itself well.

Experts told BDO that in order to become a top destination in global tourism, Budapest needs to offer comfortable and direct access by air. Since the collapse of Hungarian airlines Malev, low-cost airlines developed their Budapest services robustly but their passengers mainly prefer three and four-star hotels and hostels. There is currently a shortage in direct services linking Budapest with US and Far Eastern destinations.

In order to develop conference tourism, a new conference centre with a capacity for several thousand people needs to be built, the experts said, adding that an official announcement is expected about plans for such a centre in late February. Budapest boasts of a high concentration of five-star hotels in the city centre and this is worth considering when the location of the new conference centre is chosen, they said.

Most hotel experts believe that standardised and long-term tourism marketing is currently missing in Budapest and noted that while the Hungarian Tourism company spends around 5 million euros on promotion, Vienna earmarks 14 million euros and Prague 9 million for such purposes annually.

Photo: www.eumozaik.hu

Source: http://hungarymatters.hu/