Hungarian Tourism Authorities Initiated a Promotion Campaign Of The Destination

[IMG=20523-6257]Tourism authorities of Hungary initiate the Internet advertising campaign of the country aimed at promotion of tours to Balaton Lake for young people, Reuters reported. The way to attract young audience is quite provocative – animation shows the story how a young man meets a beautiful blond girl, they make love in a fishing boat, while he is hiding an engagement ring. Hungarians believe that such animation will stimulate the interest of young people in their country. Meanwhile, Russian travel market players divided opinions towards the Hungarian initiative. Thus, Elena Yudina, the Head of the European Department of De Visu travel company, said in the interview to a BANKO correspondent: ‘Hungary is not in demand with Russian young people. It is quite expensive – a minimum price for tour package to the well-known lake is 765 Euro. Moreover, the season in Hungary is short – only three summer months. Besides, only scheduled flights fly to the destination. The Balaton resort does not have much entertainment for young people. It is mainly preferred by families and people who on medical indications can not go to Southern countries. In order to attract young people to the resort it is necessary to make a competitive product with Hungarian colleagues and then there will be no need in animation’. Senior Manager of the Hungarian Destination of Aurora Intour, Ekaterina Kolesnichenko, disagreed: ‘Balaton Lake is a good alternative for sea resorts. Here sport tourism is well developed: surfing, scoters, water skiing. Moreover, at the moment Euro is not adopted as a national currency that makes tours to Hungary cheaper than to, for example, Italy or Spain’. Meanwhile, some tour operators believe Hungary is a difficult destination owing the work of the Hungarian Embassy in Moscow. Experts point out that only one consulate agent accepts visa applications. The Consulate explains it by high work load. Moreover, a year ago the Consulate terminated the practice of urgent visas issuing. ‘A 5-day visa issuing period in fact becomes ten days. Sometimes one visa application is accepted by 40 minutes. We have to prepare urgent visas via the Hungarian Consulate in St. Petersburg that provokes additional expenses on express mail’, complained Ekaterina Kolesnichenko.