Tourism experts want to turn focus on the fact that one of the most important instruments and resources of tourism is water, Deputy CEO of Hungarian Tourism Ltd Gergely Horváth said at the press conference organized to commemorate the event. Gergely Horváth stressed that this is the third year that the World Tourism Day is celebrated in Hungary and this year’s motto also aims to raise awareness in environmental issues as the development of tourism has been an increasing burden on the environment.

Deputy State Secretary for Tourism Viktória Horváth pointed out that the tourism has been one of the fastest-expanding service sector divisions which has a huge growth potential in Hungary, too. Therefore, the Ministry for National Economy pays special attention to this field in the ongoing drafting of development policy cornerstones for the period 2014-2020.
The Deputy State Secretary stressed that 9 percent of Hungary’s GDP tourism originates – indirectly – from the tourism sector which employs 12 percent of labour force.

Speaking about the significance of the sector, Gergely Horváth said that tourism generates more than 1 000 billion forints of income annually, and the sector has been expanding steadily. According to the UN’s World Tourism Organization, this year international arrivals will increase by 3-4 percent all over the world. The organization also estimates that this figure will be 2.1 percent in Europe and 3.4 percent in Central Europe and the Baltic states, which are Hungary’s main regional peers. Gergely Horváth added that in the initial seven months of 2013 the number of foreign guests in Hungary increased above the international average, by 7.7 percent.

The Deputy CEO of Tourism Hungary Ltd said that several hundreds of partners joined the programmes related to this year’s World Tourism Day. These programmes are scheduled to take place on 27, 28 and 29 September, with the active participation of 1299 local governments and public service television channels.

(Ministry for National Economy)