Toward Complex and Sustainable Tourism in Hungary

Abstract

In the late 20th and early 21st cen­tury, so­cial and eco­nomic sus­tain­ab­il­ity and the mit­ig­a­tion of en­vir­on­mental de­struc­tion have been is­sues of key con­cern. Tour­ism is in­tensely af­fected, as this sec­tor is among the most pol­lut­ing and least sus­tain­able activ­it­ies. Re­peated pan­dem­ics, in­clud­ing the Ebola, AIDS, SARS, MERS, and then COVID-19, have been des­troy­ing the eco­nomy all over the world and, not sur­pris­ingly, they hit tour­ism the hard­est of all sec­tors, as mass travels ac­cel­er­ate the spread of con­ta­gious dis­eases. But tour­ism already en­countered prob­lems long be­fore the pan­demic. As ex­cess­ive tour­ism and the res­ult­ant pol­lu­tion had already in­creased in the past few dec­ades, anti-tour­ism at­ti­tudes spread rap­idly. The cur­rent health haz­ards could be used to trans­form the un­sus­tain­able, pol­lut­ing tour­ism into an eco­lo­gic­ally and so­cially sus­tain­able activ­ity. This art­icle ana­lyzes the op­tions we have.