Gay Tourism in Budapest: An Exploratory Study on Gay Tourists’ Motivational Patterns for Traveling to Budapest

Thomas Köllen,Szabolcs Lazar

doi:10.5923/j.tourism.20120103.01

Abstract

In contrast to East European cities, West European cities have increasingly targeted gay and lesbian travelers as part of their tourism campaigns. In order to exemp larily analy ze the potential of international gay touris m for Budapest, nineteen semi-structured, in-depth interviews with non-Hungarian gay travelers, about their mot ivation to come and their experiences, were conducted in d ifferent gay establishments in the city. One result of the study is that their motivations for travel did not differ fro m mainstream tourists; while their expectations about gay life in the city were negative, their experiences were mixed. Imp licat ions for Budapest's city-marketing are discussed.

Highlights

In contrast to East European cities, West European cities have increasingly targeted gay and lesbian travelers as part of their tourism campaigns
While research on beaches and western cities[6,7], and the offers are often gay tourism main ly analy zes western cit ies or beach related to special events like gay pride parades or gay sports holidays as travel destinations this paper concentrates for events[8,9]
To estimate the segment is, and was, supported by social attitude changes potential that gay tourism could have for Eastern-European towards gays and lesbians over the past years and decades cities, the examp le of Budapest is chosen

Summary

Introduction

In contrast to East European cities, West European cities have increasingly targeted gay and lesbian travelers as part of their tourism campaigns. While research on beaches and western cities[6,7], and the offers are often gay tourism main ly analy zes western cit ies or beach related to special events like gay pride parades or gay sports holidays as travel destinations this paper concentrates for events[8,9]. To estimate the segment is, and was, supported by social attitude changes potential that gay tourism could have for Eastern-European towards gays and lesbians over the past years and decades cities, the examp le of Budapest is chosen. For this purpose, in th e western co unt ries[3].

Methods

Results

Conclusion