Hungary warms up for EU accession
Long before the run-up to the accession to the European Union (EU), Hungary has prepared for regional cooperation in overseas marketing. Two years ago, it has decided to take advantage of an obvious cross-promotion with a few countries. “It is (something) like the European Union accession which is called the Visegrad countries – Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia met. Four states met to discuss regional cooperation including in tourism,” György Székely, Director General for Tourism, Ministry of Economy and Transport told eTurbo News.
The so-called European Quartet has given tourism marketing, sales and promotion a boost – pulling in big numbers from the U.S. to Central Europe itself. The Quartet has capitalized on the states’ commonality, not just in terms of geography, but also in history and heritage. And from the economics point of view, the strategy was ideal.
Miklos Walko, advisor to the president of the Hungarian National Tourist Office, said that some 15 – 25 years ago, Eastern Europe was associated with low prices but very, very low quality. “So we promoted Budapest, Prague and other cities individually. The US promoted us combined (with Krakow, Vienna which was classical).” That has changed with the cooperation set-up by the Visegrad 4 or the Quartet.
Visegrad was Hungary’s warm-up for EU accession. Past the painful transition in the 70s and 80s (when travel agents, the travel market as a whole, had been dominated by just a few big players) and the privatization has given rise to small and medium enterprises, with almost 99 percent in the trade privatized today, Hungary joins the European Union expecting tremendous changes and challenges. “For 10 to 15 years, we’ve been working on the world market,” said Székely. According to him, the regulations of the European Union will expose Hungary to world travel at large, giving more chances to open and to operate in new markets.
Székely said, “The greatest challenge (with joining the EU) will be recognition and expectation to level up with the other European countries that have entered before us.”
“Interesting changes will occur. European customer expectations will change. Standards definitely will change from mid May. For our visitors coming from Europe, if something is not working in the Hungarian context, it was ‘Ok, fine tough luck,’ then. Things (had) been acceptable from a European point of view.”Â
Come 1st of May, people will expect the same standards as has Spain, England, France or Italy. “They will demand, ‘you are now the EU!”
Hungary, although a small European country known traditionally as highly agricultural, has arrived as a technology protégé for Europe. “You will be surprised how Hungary now competes in the automotive and electronic arena with our largest exports being Volkswagen and AUDI (with 2M cars per year turnover).” General Electric and other multinational companies are on the rise. 50 percent of cell phones sold in Europe are produced in Hungary’s factories.Â
By joining the EU, Hungary will be an important logistical base between the EU and Eastern/ South Eastern Europe. Main transport connections which link the best parts of the EU to the Southern part and all the way to Greece are in Hungary. ” For a small country with good strategic location, we hope the national receipts will come back as revenues to the tourism sector,” said Szekely.
Hotels and restaurants in Hungary comprise 3 percent of the country’s GDP. The ancillary industries account for 10 percent of GDP, and 6 percent of the labor force is engaged in the trade. In a country of 10 million people, 13 to 14 million trips abroad are made by Hungarians. Visitors come and register 30 million border crossings annually. “A big part is in transit, and the other part is in long-day excursions from major countries because of the size of Hungary.
The tourism trade is supported by 11 million overnights with 3 billion euro pumped annually. “Thus far, tourism is a relatively large industry for a small country such as ours.”
In terms of popularity and accessibility, Hungary has been in the lead amongst the new EU entrants. Chairman of the General Tours Inc. and chairman/founder of the American Tourism Society Alex Harris said that
Hungary has been a better known republic than the neighboring states. “This is why we included Hungary in almost every combination of our European tours, knowing that (it) is more known than the fringe countries like
Romania, Bulgaria or Slovakia.” Michael Stolowitzky, former director for American Express international business development said: “Americans went to the classical destinations in Europe like Paris and Rome. The US traveling public is more or less the same people, the ones with passports – about only 14 percent. They have been so many times to these capitals; hence there is so much support in the US to visit the (upcoming) destinations in the EU, such as Hungary.”
Alongside the Quartet prior to being party to the EU another joint committee has promoted Hungary overseas. According to Walko, the committee includes the US, Japan, Brazil and China. “Hungary with its ‘approved destination status’ officially received Chinese groups to the country. Not many countries have this status or are on the list,” said Walko. The cooperation is defined by the match in level of quality of software and hardware in the committee countries. They promote together. “There is no political reasoning to it, only a (straightforward) simple business thinking,” furthered Walko.
Accessibility to Central Europe will be key to mass selling. From low-cost carriers to the regular flag carriers, the benefits of EU membership are being seen even before May – on the skies. According to the Central European
Countries Travel Association (CECTA), SkyEurope has built a network of routes from Budapest and Bratislava to London, Paris and Amsterdam. UK’s easyJet has also announced new routes to Budapest and Slovenia; RyanAir is expected to follow.
Kristof Sztojanovics, director of the Hungarian Convention Bureau said that easy and short flights from all European capitals are available. Daily trans-Atlantic flights are available through the national carriers Malev’s tandem with Delta, Lufthansa Swiss, KLM, There is frequent express trains link with the European rail network in all direction, while a hydrofoil boat service and the bureaus’ own coach service operate between Budapest and Vienna daily.
The Union of International Associations, the oldest organization established in 1920 in Hungary has some 40,000 members from amongst 50,000 existing registered international associations. The ICCA or International Congress and Conference Association founded in 1963 by a group of travel agents, places Budapest at helm of the European MICE destinations. Together, the ICCA and UIA are challenged with the fact that after joining the EU, entrants have taken advantage of the membership – increasing conference bookings by 20 percent in Austria and about 50 percent in Sweden and Finland.
Others, apart from Hungary, also await outcome from May onwards. As Jean-Claude Baumgarten, the World Travel & Tourism Council President put it: “Travel & Tourism merits the serious attention of governments, as it is unique in the way it is consistently growing and has the power to shift wealth form the haves to the have-nots.”
The European Union has allocated 5.8 billion euro to Hungary through 2006. 3 billion euro will be received from the EU’s structural and cohesion funds to speed up its economic growth according to the Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy. EU experts estimate Hungary will absorb about 30 percent of funding at most.
author: Hazel Heyer
eTurbonews.com
Travelvideo.TV – your news source for the travel and tourism industry.
April 30, 2004
Posted in: Hungary