News
Free parking for tour buses
With the cooperation of several Budapest institutions and organisations, the parking problem for tourist buses in the city centre is solved, as a free parking was opened - on experimental base - in the City Park. Located close to the Contemporary Art Gallery (Műcsarnok), between the Olof Palme Sétány and the Dózsa György út, a special parking place was opened on 25 July. Here, buses can wait for tourists, nearby toilets and water bloques are also available for guests.
Forrás: HTTH
The effect of EU-presidency on hotels
During the first semester of 2011, altogether 40.000 visitors arrived to Hungary for the events of the EU-presidency, who usually spent 1-2 days in Hungary - states the survey of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Hungary. Conferences outside of Budapest were held in Gödöllő's Grassalkovich Castle, Debrecen and Balatonfüred. Delegates altogether spent HUF 1.7 billion (6 million euros) in hotels, while related services (transportation, entertainment, shopping) also accounts for the same amount, meaning a total of HUF 3.5 billon revenue for tourism-related suppliers.
Forrás: HTTH
AUTOGRAPH COLLECTION CONTINUES TO GROW IN EUROPE
Autograph Collection, Marriott International’s (NYSE:MAR) fastest growing brand, today announced that six luxury Boscolo Hotels in Europe will join the collection. Last year, Marriott International launched Autograph Collection, a group of exceptional independent luxury hotels, each hand-selected for their originality, character and uncommon details. With the addition of Boscolo properties, located in some of Europe’s most beautiful cities, Autograph Collection has now grown to 26 properties globally.
The following four Boscolo Hotels will join Autograph Collection in September 2011: Boscolo Budapest, Budapest, Hungary, Boscolo Palace Roma, Rome, Italy, Boscolo Venezia, Venice, Italy, Boscolo Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
“These Boscolo Hotels are an incredible addition to the Autograph Collection” said Amy McPherson, president and managing director for Marriott International in Europe. “Located in some of the most spectacular cities in the world, each hotel is truly one-of-a-kind. Autograph Collection is an exceptional opportunity for both Marriott and our hotel partners.”
Giorgio Boscolo, vice president of Boscolo Group added, “We are proud to join the Marriott family and the Autograph Collection, and have great confidence in Marriott’s ability to help us gain additional global exposure and reach new emerging markets. We look forward to offering our guests a new experience, embracing the heart of each city with a warm Italian touch.”
Boscolo Hotels operates 22 highly prestigious hotels in the most important European art and business cities.
The Boscolo Hotels are inspired by the Italian principles of elegance, courtesy and trendsetting design in order to spread Italian hospitality around the world. All Boscolo Hotels are unique pearls and are considered ambassadors of the Italian lifestyle.
Source: Boscolo Budapest and Boscolo Luxury Residence
Budapest is knocking on heaven’s door
“Budapest is knocking on heaven’s door” by Padraic Gilligan
When the long haired buskers in the underpass are playing complex counterpoints by Bartok and Bernstein rather than “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” by Bob Dylan then you know you’re in Budapest. This is a city with a profound intellectual and cultural DNA which it carries naturally, effortlessly but not imposingly. It’s a city with easy appeal for all meeting and event planners because it’s a very serious city that never takes itself too seriously.
The Budapest that we visit today is largely paid forward by gifted town planners from as far back as the early 1800s who valued their own architectural past and had a clear vision for its future. Their meticulous planning has created a magnificent imperial city with stunningly beautiful public edifices set around wide avenues, leafy squares and fine urban parks.
Only a quarter of the buildings in Budapest remained unscathed during the 2nd World War when, for 2 full months, the city itself was a battlefield. This, followed by almost 45 years of Communist rule, brought monochromatic banality to a once vibrant and colourful city and left huge work to be done from 1990 onwards when Hungary, along with many neighbouring Eastern European countries, emerged from a long winter of discontent.
The Castle district on the Buda Hills is magnificently restored and offers an unparalleled perspective across the Danube to the more sprawling Pest with the richly ornate Parliament Buildings, reminiscent of Westminister without Big Ben, the main focus of your gaze. The Castle district dates from the 13th and 16th centuries but today its buildings host Hungary’s National Library and Gallery and Budapest’s History Museum. The Hospital in the Rock, only recently re-discovered, offers a fascinating insight into how the courageous Hungarian Resistance took care of the sick and the infirm during the war years, all under the watchful but ultimately unseeing gaze of the occupying Nazis.
The Hilton Hotel there, one of two Hiltons in the city, is built around some fascinating archaeology allowing guests the chance to access the area’s rich historical legacy over champagne and canapés! Higher up on the Buda Hills, meanwhile, Restaurant Búsuló Juhász affords outstanding views of the residential, and almost bucolic Buda district from its terraced patios and serves contemporary Hungarian cuisine with creativity and panache.
The contemporary Renaissance of the city, however, radiates with systematic determination eastwards from Roosevelt Square and presents meeting and event planners with ever more convincing reasons to place business in Budapest. The Four Seasons Budapest, located in the stunning Gresham Palace with direct views of the Chain Bridge and the Castle District, has set the bar for 5 star standards and service in the city.
Nearby, flanking the east bank of the Danube there’s a total of 1200 rooms courtesy of Marriott, Intercontinental and Accor. Fashion Steet adds an impressive Kempinski with superlative meeting space and a compact but beautiful Le Meridien. The buildings and the streetscapes in this downtown area are meticulously restored and convey a sense of upscale chic and bourgeois bounty.
This urban regeneration is evident too along Andrassy Ut the central Champs-Elysees-style spine which joins the riverfront to Heroes Square. Here magnificent public buildings built for banks and insurance companies at a time of great economic expansion in the late 1800s have been re-purposed as retail outlets for Armani, Gucci and D&G. The Italian stuccadores and craftsmen whose artistry is immortalised in the beauty of these buildings must be smiling wryly at this ironic twist of history.
They will also be extremely proud of the New York Palace, one of the city’s newest and most opulent 5 star hotels. Built in 1894 for the New York Insurance Company, the Boscolo family has transformed this building into an amazing hotel and conference centre. There are 185 sleeping rooms ranging in size from 28 and 35 square metres. Ceilings are elegantly high, as expected in such period buildings and decor is predominantly beige with seamless silk wallpapers. The New York Cafe is an extraordinary dining facility in the elaborate belle epoch style with 2 wonderful private function areas.
A recent additional development to the New York Palace has added a double height 440sqm conference and banqueting facility with 2 additional breakout spaces of 60sqm each. The style here is unapologetically contemporary but it all connects back beautifully and seamlessly into the original period building.
Very close to Heroes Square, Gundel Restaurant offers over 100 years of uninterrupted service to diners in search of traditional “haute cuisine” served with precision, pomp and ceremony. Combining the strong, robust flavours of Hungary with the light refinement of France Gundel is deservedly known as Hungary’s best restaurant and, allegedly, did more for Hungarian tourism at the 1939 World Fair in New York than “a shipload of tourist brochures”. And so say all of us!
Outside of these areas, however, there are lots of opportunities to access a city in transition and tap into what Budapest was like during the lost years. The rising economic tide has not lifted all boats equally as evidenced by the pervasive vagrancy in the city’s underpasses and sidewalks. Likewise Gucci and Armani are replaced by stores selling fabrics and sewing machines and fancy restaurants are replaced by breadshops and liquor stores. But there’s authenticity and credibility in this urban edginess and, in some way, it intrinsic to its appeal.
So, you’re away from the Riverfront, lost on side streets that are grimy and grey. But just when you start to see a marked increase in body builder types with buzz cuts and tattoos, the soothing sounds of Liszt hits your ears and you notice the violinist dressed simply in jeans and tee shirt, playing amidst the rush, lost in the beauty of the music. Welcome to Budapest.
Padraic Gilligan, Managing Director, Ovation Global DMC.
Padraic was in Budapest on the occasion of the excellent MCI Academy and would like to offer sincere thanks to all those who helped make our week there so memorable. In particular Eszter and Dori from the Hungarian Convention Bureau provided great support and introduced the MCI team to their excellent new on-line tool for meetings planners – www.budapestmeetings.com. It would be remiss of me not to single out Agnes and Dori of the Microcosmos, Hungary’s BEST DMC with whom I first encountered this magnificent city over 5 years ago.
New hotel in Zamárdi
Hotel Wellamarin Leisure & Wellness officially opened last week with a wide range of quality services at the Balaton. The 4-star hotel offers 118 spacious rooms and apartments, all of which are equipped with balcony, air-conditioning, mini-bar, safe, LCD TV, hairdryer and internet connection. The hotel targets families and leisure travellers with various catering facilities, sport and leisure programmes, bowling, squash, fitness and gym, playhouse and games room. However, the owners of the hotel also reckon on attracting corporate guests with conference rooms on the 1st floor.
Source: HTTH
Business travel suppliers honoured
Business Traveller Hungary magazine announced the winners of its Business Excellence Awards, voted by real travellers to the best corporate travel suppliers. Readers of the magazine could vote online in 8 categories, and the awards were presented in a gala reception held on 15 June. The winners are: Budapest business hotel: Courtyard by Marriott, Budapest conference hotel: Danubius Health Spa Resort Helia, Business hotel in Hungary: Airport Hotel Budapest, Conference hotel in Hungary: Velence Resort&Spa, Corporate tour operator: American Express, Airline: Qatar Airways, Car rental: Hertz Hungary, Newcomer: BUD SkyCourt.
Source: HTTH
Gyula's largest hotel reconstructed
Following an almost 2.5 billion HUF (9.7 million euros) rebuild, Gyula's Hunguest Hotel Erkel stepped into a higher category as one of the wings, now called Dürer, was transformed to meet the criteria of the 4-star category. In the other wing, now named after Hungarian painter Mihály Munkácsy, 147 refurbished rooms are available in the 3-star category. Several conference rooms and a wellness centre were also built and the restaurant rejuvenated.
Source: HTTH
Hungarian MICE tourism is increasing
Hungary hosted 90 international events with 17,000 guests in the first quarter of 2011 these figures surpass even the statistics of the pre-crisis first three months of 2008.
The average number of participants per event was 198, the average length was 3.3 days, the most popular venue was Budapest (hosting two-thirds of all events), followed by Gödöllő, Szeged and Pécs. Most of the events were organised in hotels, but the role of universities and science institutions is also growing. Almost 85% of participants were foreigners, mostly British and Germans, Italians, French and Belgians, while medical and business/economic conferences topped the themes.
Thousands of conference guests at Hungexpo in May
In mid-May Hungexpo is hosting two big international conferences gathering almost 6,000 guests from all over the world.
Last week the ICT Proposers Day organised annually by the European Committee welcomed 2500 IT experts, while the TETRA World Congress, starting on 25 May, will host 3000 guests for the annual event of the communication system.
Budapest Airport: passenger numbers up
The number of passengers at Budapest's international Liszt Ferenc Airport went up by 14.8 percent to 2.390.000 in January-April year-on-year.
Airport operator Budapest Airport (BA) announced that in April alone the airport handled 734,000 passengers, which is a significant, 8 percent increase compared to the same month last year.
The increase in passenger numbers in the first quarter was largely due to an overall 36.9 percent increase in passengers carried on scheduled flights, mostly by Lufthansa, British Airways and Air France. The most popular destinations were London, Paris and Frankfurt. New routes also added to this success, as Qatar Airways launched its Budapest-Doha flight, while American Airlines also started its service to New York JFK.
Riga flight arrived to Budapest
On Monday, Budapest Airport welcomed the first airBaltic flight linking the Hungarian captial city with the Latvian capital city of Riga. Flight number BT491 touched down ahead of the 12:15 scheduled time to a welcoming committee, including representatives of Budapest Airport, Budapest Mayor's Office, the Latvian Ambassador and representatives of the Hungarian National Tourist Office (HNTO).
airBaltic has launched four flights weekly between the two cities with the new schedule representing Budapest Airport's first flights to the increasingly important commercial hub of Riga. The route is expected to carry 24,000 year-round passengers. The new flights will provide passengers travelling via Budapest with improved transit connections to destinations in Scandinavia, Russia and the CIS. Lead-in fares for economy tickets start from just 49 Euros for a one way fare; airBaltic is also offering the corporate traveller a business class service. Tickets can be purchased via the airBaltic website www.airbaltic.com.
Source: HTTH http://www.turizmus.com/Newsinenglish/index/0/10014
EU focus on sustainability
The European Tourism Stakeholder Conference, held in Budapest on 12-13 May, was one of the most important tourism events during the Hungarian EU presidency. The meeting, held in the Hungarian Parliament, focused on the new thematic tourism products serving the quality of life, best practices for responsible business behaviour and the responsible attitude of tourists. At the press briefing, Mr Antonio Tajani, vice president of the European Commission, stressed that he was very optimistic about the future of European tourism since, according to the latest Eurobarometer forecast, 58% of EU residents are planning a vacation in the continent. However, uncovering new source markets - such as the Russian and Chinese middle-class - is also important, therefore a pilot project will soon be launched to motivate Latin Americans to find their roots. Mr Zoltán Cséfalvay, state secretary at the Ministry of National Economics, emphasised the need for new products. One possible area could be health tourism, where Hungary can show good examples, but green travel also looks promising. According to Mr Taleb Rifai, secretary of the UNWTO, Europe has reached a turning point: we have to face the challenges of the crisis, unemployment, increasing energy and food prices, he said. Fortunately the negative trends have turned but Europe has to re-position itself against the emerging new markets, and this is where the leaders of EU states must play an important role. Michela Vittoria Brambilla, tourism minister of Italy, highlighted the need for responsible and ethical tourism.
Source: HTTH http://www.turizmus.com/Newsinenglish/index/0/10014
Larus event hall opens in Buda
The latest venue for MICE organisers opened in early May in the heart of Buda, in the 12th district's Sirály Street next to the new MOM Cultural Centre. Larus Restaurant offers a unique environment, creative gastronomy with a focus on the modernisation of traditional Hungarian dishes, weekly and daily offers, local wines and spirits plus an open-air terrace in the summer. The event hall, which is equipped with the latest technology, can cater for up to 500 people over 550 sqm, although capacity can be extended with the neighbouring MOM Cultural Centre's theatre for 650 persons. Further information: www.larusevent.hu
Source: HTTH http://www.turizmus.com/Newsinenglish/index/0/10014
Budapest Airport receives European airport marketing awards
Budapest Airport has been announced as the overall winner of this year's Routes Airport Marketing Awards during the Gala Dinner at the Routes Europe forum in Cagliari, Italy, where more than 700 aviation professionals gathered for the 6th Routes Europe conference.After being nominated by airlines, the airports are then asked to submit details about their route development activity and results. A panel of judges considers these submissions and scores them based upon how it matches the entry brief, route development content, evidence of relationship with airlines, innovative ways of marketing to airlines, results, effectiveness and creative application.
New venue to host big conferences in Budapest
The transformation of the Syma Sport and Event Centre's Hall C has resolved a long-standing demand: the complex is now ready to host conferences up to 2000 people. Syma executed the development from its own funds. Now, both the plenary room and the section rooms can host meetings of up to 2000 people, while the exhibition space is sufficient and the catering is also well-established. Syma's Hall C can be divided into 3 section rooms, each with capacity for 500; Hall A has 8000 sqm of exhibition space and Hall B can cater for 2300. The three halls together offer 17 section rooms, while capacities in theatre style are 5500, 3200 and 1500, respectively. The first event booked for Hall C is the meeting of the EU health ministers this week, where almost 1000 participants are expected.
Institutional Investor rates Hungarian hotels among the best
Institutional Investor magazine has just published its compilation of the 100 best hotels in the world, based on the opinion of its readers. The best turned out to be the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo, followed by the Peninsula Beijing and Mandarin Oriental New York, but two Hungarian hotels are also listed. The Four Seasons Gresham Palace is ranked 34th and the Kempinski Hotel Corvinus Budapest is 98th.
The magazine polled more than 170 senior financial executives from 35 countries who spent an average 52 nights a year in hotels last year. The scores respondents gave to hotels were tabulated using a formula that assigns greater weight to responses from the most frequent travellers. The results were then averaged and the top 100 hotels that made the cut were ranked.
The list can be read here:
http://www.institutionalinvestor.com/Research/163/1137/0/0/0/The_Worlds_Best_Hotels/Top_100_Hotels.htm
Source: HTTH http://www.turizmus.com/Newsinenglish/index/0/10014
Malév to open lounge at the SkyCourt
Malév will provide its customers with the most attractive and largest business lounge in the SkyCourt terminal at Ferihegy International Airport from 28 March 2011. The new terminal is being realized by Budapest Airport Zrt. as part of its major airport development project.
As a result of this investment, frequent flyers of the airline and the oneworld airline alliance will be able to use the comfortable lounge at the airport. Up to 75 passengers will be able to wait for the departure of their flights in the lounge located on the gallery floor of the terminal enjoying the high level of comfort and high standard services available.
The lounge is open to all business passengers of the airline, Malév Duna Club Platinum, Gold and Silver Card frequent flyers, as well as Emerald and Sapphire tier regular travellers of oneworld member airlines, on condition that they are flying with Malév.
The airline will publish the name and design sketches of the new Malév business lounge on its website and on Facebook shortly.
Source: HTTH http://www.turizmus.com/Newsinenglish/index/0/10014
More than 700 participants at the presentation of the marketing plan
Mr Gergely Horváth, CEO of the Hungarian National Tourist Office, held a full-house presentation of next year's tourism marketing plan at the Hotel InterContinental Budapest on 14 December.
Knowing that the marketing budget has a very good chance to be increased significantly, executives of the HNTO are somewhat optimistic about fulfilling the goals of next year: a 2.7% hike in the number of domestic guest nights and 3.4% plus in the number of foreign guest nights.
The aim is to concentrate the funds within the HNTO and outside too, with the help of partner institutions. Thus the tasks of the regional directorates and the foreign representations may be modified; this later will focus on the contacts with trade partners, the coordination of programmes and sales promotions, while the domestic network will be responsible for regional communication with customers and travel trade partners.
Novelties of the plan, focusing on underground waters, include a mobile team within the HNTO responsible for the tasks of markets that do not require a constant presence. The reinforced Hungarian Convention Bureau submitted bids for 24 major international conferences, out of which it won 6. Further support from the office is also possible.
Marketing tools will also change. Publications will be rationalised and stronger focus will be given to online solutions. The websites of the HNTO will be reduced from the current 144 sites to 3 central ones and some additional sites for specific campaigns.
Fam trips this year generated HUF 6 billion (23 million euros) in media value, so these will continue to have great importance; furthermore, more trips will be organised at the request of suppliers.
Source: HTTH http://www.turizmus.com/Newsinenglish/index/0/10014
Current news
