Attracted by the countryside – invisible tourism in Hungarian urban agglomerations

Abstract

The study aims to explore settlements involved in the so-called invisible tourism (i.e. not recorded by statistics) within urban agglomerations, by analyzing holiday function vs accommodation (hotel) turnover. We selected settlements with recreation function using the 2001 census and the 2002–2014 TeIR (Spatial Information System of Hungary) data, and analyzed discrepancies between tourism supply and demand in urban agglomerations involving 2015 data of Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH). There is a lack of studies about mobility generated by leisure, recreation and tourist activities inside urban agglomerations especially in terms of the relationship between the urban core and the settlements on the fringe providing “rural experiences”. While statistics record mostly tourism in the urban core, invisible tourism is typical to the satellite where the secondary home owners and the daily hikers/excursionists do not register accommodation. This research aims to identify the relationship between conventional (i.e. registered) and invisible tourism and the differences between selected Hungarian regional centers in this respect. While the Budapest agglomeration – the largest urban agglomeration in Hungary – provides the most advanced tourism infra- and suprastructure based on the difference between the urban and rural milieus, we can also trace similar processes in other regional urban centers. The comparison of second homes stock (weekend houses) and tourism flow data sets showed strong correlation for Pécs and Miskolc agglomerations. In the former case, Orfű, while in the latter, Bükkszentkereszt represents the symbiosis of conventional (registered) and invisible tourism. In the cases of Győr and Budapest agglomerations, we did not find such overlappings. On the other hand, Szentendre (within the Budapest agglomeration) represents the archetype of invisible tourism: it has a high unrecorded tourist turnover coupled with an oversupply of registered accommodations and few registered hotel nights combined with a high number of second homes. Tourist attractions, generating one-day trips, do not generate a weekend house belt but nature, waterfronts and a rural milieu can be a base for second homes within an urban agglomeration.