Is Budapest a livable city or more for tourists

Tourism industry experts in Hungary would like Budapest to resemble Barcelona more in terms of the number of tourists visiting. However, other countries have been struggling for years with the masses of travelers ruining their cities. Based on Előd Fruzsina’s article:

McKinsey published its global industry analysis on tourism this year, and even a separate material was prepared on Budapest. These contain a lot of data about where tourism stands and in what directions it is developing in the world and in the Hungarian capital. Based on the company’s research, the current trends defining global tourism show that the pace of tourism growth after the short silence of the Covid period is barely slowing down. However, Budapest is not yet fully exploiting its significant tourism potential, which, if it did, could result in twice as many travelers arriving in a year by 2030 than now. And they would be much wealthier than the current clientele.

Alongside the economic arguments in favor of increasing tourism, it is generally not raised, for example, whether it is good for the local population. The study on the possibilities of Budapest revealed what has been said at every tourism-related event for ten (or perhaps rather twenty) years: unfortunately, the Hungarian capital has a relatively small number of high-spending tourists, and in general, there are few tourists compared to other cities with similar characteristics. Vienna and Prague are usually mentioned here, McKinsey now boldly added Berlin, Lisbon, Barcelona and Milan to the comparison base, and analyzed what else could be brought out of the Hungarian capital in terms of tourism compared to these six places. The reason why these cities were chosen is because they found that there are certain similarities based on which they can be mentioned on par with Budapest, but they still perform better in almost every tourism indicator.

Budapest is already in the European top 15 in terms of international overnight stays (11th place, 14.1 million nights), but the number, spending power and length of stay of foreign tourists can be further increased in the coming years. According to the analysis, the terrain is favorable for growth, as Budapest is currently 40 percent below the average of the group of six, but it has a lot of good qualities that can still be emphasized in marketing. By 2030, even according to the conservative estimate, one and a half times, and according to the ambitious estimate, twice as many tourists could arrive in Budapest as are currently coming in a year. Based on McKinsey’s data, this means 5-7 million people per year, with the latter we would already make up half of our lag compared to the selected field.

Social media is a great tool to attract high-status tourists, an opportunity that Budapest is not currently using to its full potential.

At this point, it is worth bringing in that while the country’s and Budapest’s tourism leaders would double the number of international tourists arriving here, if we look at where Budapest and Barcelona currently stand in terms of overnight stays, an ominous future picture emerges. The Catalan capital is almost exactly double that of the Hungarian one now, in 2023 (14.1 million vs. 29.9 million). In other words, if we were to approach them in this indicator as well, we would surely face very similar problems as the residents there. And the designated goal points in this direction: if we start from the ambitious 7 million tourists/year and the extension of the time spent here by at least one day per person, then approximately 20-25 million guest nights will be spent in Budapest by foreigners by 2030.

However, the experts and the study do not deal with sustainability aspects, for example, the already crowded streets of Budapest could become even narrower. Rental prices for apartments are so high that they are a challenge at the current level as well, if they rise further due to the increase in tourism, the already difficult housing situation could worsen further.

The comparison with European tourism centers is also dangerous because wages are significantly higher everywhere and higher-priced tourism does not significantly change the cost of living for locals.

The further deliberate increase in the weight of tourism at this point no longer serves the interests of the majority in Budapest either. It rather goes under the tourism and hospitality lobby, whose most important players are now businessmen close to the political leaders. Staying on the ground of reality, of course, no one’s goal is to be excluded from the international circulation or to drive away travelers from Budapest, who otherwise feel like coming here and are willing to abide by community norms. But it’s time for more people to dare to say at a more serious level: in city and economic policy decisions affecting tourism, it is not necessary to go with the international trend and directly encourage the greatest possible influx, the most spending, there are many other ways to develop the economy conceivable. In fact, the Hungarian capital does not need even more tourists, just as no other popular European city does.