No more tourist buses in Budapest?!

Even though some tourism service providers have started to recover this summer, tourist bus operators are still in a critical situation. The circumstances are further aggravated by the issue of parking, as several attractions of Budapest will not be accessible by tourist buses soon.

As boat hotel tourism is already showing signs of life in Budapest, it would be necessary for local businesses – including tourist bus operators – to generate revenue from the recovery – said Gábor Dittel, Executive Secretary of the National Carrier Industry Association of Private Entrepreneurs. This could be resolved by an intensive organisation of sightseeing programs for tourist groups and the accessibility of the touristic sights included in the programs by bus.

However, as a result of the pandemic, tourist bus operators are still in a critical situation aggravated by additional issues.

In addition to the currently negligible backlog of orders, a further negative factor is that several boat hotels in Budapest are collaborating with Swiss and German bus partners who also transport the groups to nearby attractions

– reported by the Hungarian news portal Világgazdaság. As a result, the classical sightseeing tourist buses of Budapest fail to reach the most popular attractions of the Hungarian capital.

Furthermore, the question of parking has not been resolved for the time being.

By way of example, one of Budapest’s most important attractions, the Hungarian Parliament, cannot be accessed by tourist buses due to the closed lower quay and the partially pedestrian zone of Constitution Street; the City Park has also become an area that is difficult to access due to event closures and planned car exemptions. According to the recent plans, tourist buses will be banned from the Gellért Hill as well, similarly to the Buda Castle that will only be accessible by electric minibuses. The logistics implementation is still a matter for the future.

Plannability and predictability are extremely important to tourism service providers. The existing difficulties cause serious problems even with low traffic. Therefore, it is important to prepare in advance for an unexpected, chaotic situation – commented the expert, who is hoping that, sooner or later, it will be possible to get a suitable place, role and operating conditions for bus tourism in Budapest.

Read alsoCan Budapest handle the tourist bus chaos?!- VIDEO

Source: vg.hu