Better City Life through Tourism
旅游让城市生活更美好
Better City Life through Tourism
旅游让城市生活更美好
The City of Budapest is a member of WTCF since its founding (2012). The City of Budapest usually represent itself by the Mayor or Deputy Mayors at the annual WTCF Summits organized in different member cities each year. Delegates of Budapest have been attending the annual summits of the organization each year (2012, 2013, 2014 Beijing, 2015 Rabat, 2017 Los Angeles).
Combine traditional and postmodern methods to discover the city
Budapest as a tourist destination combines history, culture and lifestyle with a developed tourist infrastructure including smooth mobility and friendly guest relations. Methods to be used to discover Budapest are traditional and postmodern ones from physical sightseeing to digital experience.
The River Danube is an integral part of the texture or the “bloodstream” of the city. The bridges and the Danube cityscape over the river have been classified as UNESCO world heritage landmarks. Further exclusive cityscape elements and unique products that draw visitors are historical thermal baths, the traditional Hungarian cuisine, designers’ scene and high-end cultural events and festivals like Budapest Spring Festival, Open Air Theatre or Christmas Market. Another catchword is “Budapest’s underground world”, referring to its visitable caves and labyrinths.
The newest international rankings show that visitors of Budapest enjoy the city and they are enthusiastic to share their opinion through internet, as well. We also present the range of products and advantages of the Budapest Card – which can be adapted to the needs of group and MICE travelers as well as individual tourists – at all of the workshops organized by the BFTK and at major travel trade fairs.
Safeguard the livability of the city
The future direction of city tourism can be characterized by three words: enjoy but respect! The residential population will like tourism if it contributes to wellbeing and cultural diversity of their place without an excessive ecological footstep. The city can have tourists, but tourists should not have the city!
The biggest challenge for Budapest’s tourism organization is to spread tourism out evenly in terms of time and space, besides coordinating product development and marketing tasks in order to reach higher-spending target groups. We believe that it is particularly important for us to be present at international forums such as the NECSTouR in Barcelona, on the network of European regions for sustainable and competitive tourism.
Rich experience in international collaboration
BFTK is a member of European Cities Marketing and an allied member of UNWTO City Tourism Network. We are also in contact with various regions in China. Beijing and Budapest have been sister cities since 2012. We have laid out the framework for a health tourism agreement with Chongqing, as well. Besides, we have exclusive cultural and tourism ties with Moscow and Saint Petersburg, which will manifest this fall in the form of the Budapest Days.
In addition, China’s National Tourism Administration chose to open its first office in the Central and Eastern Europe region in Budapest in 2016.
Budapest Festival and Tourism Centre also represents itself at thematic WTCF events just like Global Tourism Economy Forum (2017, Macau), and will attend the WTCF Summit 2018 in Qingdao.
Current demand of Budapest’s Tourism
Among existing initiatives, we would note in particular the One Belt, One Road collaboration. Budapest has hosted the China-Central and Eastern Europe Tourism Coordination Center since May 2014. The objective of the center is to promote the 17 members of the initiative as a tourist destination on the Chinese tourism market. What we expect from the TCC collaboration is the simplification of visa issues, the development of air routes, the development of Silk Road tourism, as well as the deepening of regional training networks.
We would also mention the promotion of study scholarships that would help to train a new generation of experts in the tourism trade. We need street-smart experts in international good practices who are able to transplant their experiences gained abroad into Hungary.
