Tamara Rátz

A tanulmány a Kárpát-medence szecessziós építészetének turisztikai hasznosítását vizsgálja, különös tekintettel Budapest, Szeged, Kecskemét, Pécs, Szabadka, Nagyvárad és Marosvásárhely kiemelkedő példáira. A kilenc félig strukturált interjúra épülő kutatás feltárja, hogy az elmúlt évtizedben miként alakult a szecessziós építészet turisztikai hasznosítása ezekben a városokban. A szakértők szerint a leghatékonyabb eszközök közé a tematikus városi séták, a kulturális programok és közösségi események – különösen a Szecesszió Világnapjához kapcsolódó rendezvények –, valamint a különféle digitális megoldások tartoznak, amelyek mind hozzájárulnak e gazdag építészeti örökség láthatóvá és vonzóvá tételéhez. A megszólaltatott szakemberek hangsúlyozzák továbbá az oktatásnak, a helyi közösségek bevonásának, valamint a kutatók és idegenvezetők közötti szoros együttműködésnek a jelentőségét a hiteles és fenntartható örökségbemutatás elősegítésében.

Examining today’s tourism, it should be noted that undesirable side effects have appeared and intensified, both from a social and environmental perspective. Maintaining the popularity of tourism and its further development requires change. This change must occur in both supply and consumer demand. In our study, we examine the extent to which the Hungarian population is open to exhibiting environmentally conscious and responsible consumer behavior during their travels. We analyze the results of key manifestations of responsible tourism and the attitude of the domestic population towards environmental awareness. Our study is particularly relevant as many host areas are already struggling with the negative effects of overtourism. Therefore, it is important to understand whether there is a willingness among tourism consumers to adopt more environmentally conscious and responsible consumer behavior.

The aim of the research, following the theoretical clarification of the concept of “good place”, was to investigate whether the ECoC cities of 2022 and 2023 can be classified as “good places”, i.e. recommended destinations in the international travel blogosphere, and to what extent their perception is influenced by their general tourist offer and by their European Capital of Culture title. A detailed analysis of blog contents was performed for the ECoC2022 cities. Based on the findings, we concluded that although these destinations are little known on a global level, those who visited them clearly perceived them as “good places” based on their tourist milieu. Although it was possible to discover marked differences in the character of each city, the defining elements of the tourist milieu proved to be similar: historical heritage, visuality, dominant landscape features and the relationship established with the local population. The ECoC title primarily generated expectations regarding the popularity of the destination, the actual impact of the programme series and the developments has so far only appeared sporadically in the blog posts.

Educational travel provides opportunities for participants to explore specific issues in unconventional ways. In Hungary, primary and secondary schools organise annual study trips as part of their curricula. The aim of these trips is to familiarise students with the main sights of the country, and to bring to life national narratives discussed in lessons. Furthermore, these trips often play a key role in students’ socio-psychological development, both as future tourism consumers and as future citizens. Recognising the opportunity to influence students’ worldview and way of thinking during their sensitive teenage years, the Hungarian government has created a national programme to financially support school trips organised to visit minority Hungarian communities living in the neighbouring countries. This paper is based on the content analysis of 256 detailed reports submitted by participants of school trips organised in 2013/14 with the aim to visit Hungarian minority communities in the Carpathian Basin. The analysis focuses on the detailed descriptions of the participants’ personal memories of their experiences, the social construction of the visited destinations, and the influences of their memorable experiences on their sense of national identity. The research disclosed that the trips made to Hungarian territories outside the borders contributed to shaping the national sentiment of the students participating in the programme. The findings suggest that participation in tourism is an effective means to experience nationhood and national identity, by financially supporting school trips abroad, the state is able to exert political influence over national consciousness.

Based on qualitative research methods, the paper explores the emergence of creativity and innovation in the development of guiding services, and analyses the cultural and spatial characteristics of alternative guided tours developed for niche markets in Budapest, Hungary. The study is part of a 3-year (2011–2014) research programme entitled ‘Creativity and its contribution to niche tourism development – following and creating trends’ that aimed to investigate the potential of niche tourism products in the Hungarian market. In order to understand the development process, characteristics and significance of alternative guiding in the city, a complex methodology of interviews, participant observation and content analysis of service providers’ websites and customers’ feedback on social media sites was used. The analysis suggests that although the impact of these alternative guided tours on the city’s tourist image is currently limited, they contribute to the repositioning of the destination and enrich its ambiance.