Destination: Europe 2020 transforming parks to promote cities as valuable tourist destinations

Abstract

ABSTRACTHungarian tourist destinations compete with other internationally well-known tourist destinations in terms of price, marketing, and quality. For political, historical, and economic reasons, the conditions and possibilities of Hungarian tourist venues differ greatly from their Western European counterparts. The Pan-European Picnic Memorial Park, which is a venue of the UNESCO World Heritage sites, won the European Heritage Label prize in 2015. In 1989, the reunification of Europe achieved its breakthrough when citizens of East Germany illegally broke through the official border separating Austria and Hungary near Sopron. This event was the first step to the reunification of Germany. Winning the European Heritage Label prize creates more opportunities for tourism in the region, and gives possibilities to promote Hungary as an internationally accepted tourist venue. This research is primarily linked to the themes of the World Leisure Congress since parks are essentially connected to the goals of leisure, education, and tourism and primarily fill these roles. Our research hypothesis is that the Sopron region has a viable chance of becoming an internationally accepted tourist venue by 2020. Possible indicators of the development towards that goal could be the new dual roadway, the possibility of reaching Vienna within an hour, and the completion of renovations and construction in and near Sopron. (For example, the complete renovation of the historical inner city, a new, state-of-the-art swimming pool in the Lővérek suburbs, the quarry and Cave Theatre of Fertőrákos all support the strengthening of the destination). It is essential to define the roles of tourist impressions and experiences. This paper refers to the obstacles and risks that might negatively affect the aim of establishing Sopron as an international tourist destination in the long term. The question is whether a foreseeable tourism breakthrough will be as successful as the historic political breakthrough of 1989 was.