GEOTOUR & IRSE 2012.pdf - Fakulta BERG - TUKE

Salgótarján, 04. – 06. October 2012
DATA ON THE HEALTH TOURISM STUDIES OF THE NORTH HUNGARY
Zoltán Nagy & Tekla Sebestyén Szép
University of Miskolc, Faculty of Economics, Institute of World and Regional Economics
3515 Miskolc, Miskolc-Egyetemváros
e-mail: regnzozo@uni-miskolc.hu, regtekla@uni-miskolc.hu
ABSTRACT
For the past decade tourism has become one of the most significant sectors of the world economy. In our
study we present the tendencies of Hungarian health tourism, with special regard to the North-Hungarian
Subregions. After the review of the main tourism indicator we give recommendations for the development of
health tourism and describe the creation process of the Virtual Health Tourism Research Center, together
with its objectives and results.
INTRODUCTION
Geotourism is a new alternative form of mass tourism, capable of sustaining the cultural and
environmental heritage in our world. Geotourism and health tourism feature several linking points:
the main object aimed at by both of them is controlling tourist activities in a sustainable way and
ensure the environmental integrity for the recreation of tourists.
In the tourism of North-Hungary there have not been considerable changes for the last decades.
While tourism became one of the most important subsectors of the world economy, negative
tendencies can be observed in this Hungarian region. The number of bed-places in collective tourist
accommodation available in the period between 2001 and 2010 shows a highly unfavorable and
downward tendency: The number of accommodation dropped from 35,022 to 34,754, the nights
spent in the collective tourist accommodation of the region also decreased from 1,474,358 to
1,445,018, whereas the nights spent by non-residents fell from 320,968 to 235,951 (KSH, 2012).
These data draw attention to the declining importance of tourism, however, it is one of the main
regional development targets. On the other hand, we should not ignore the effects of the economic
crisis escalating in 2008, which have changed many positive processes. According to the detailed
data, the number of bed-places in hotels, the nights spent in collective tourist accommodation and
nights spent by non-residents in collective tourist accommodation increased in many subregions
(eg. in Bélapátfalva, Edelény, Sátoraljaújhely, Tokaj Subregions), but the major problem is that
these tendencies are not the same in the bigger settlements, moreover the numbers reduced. (Tab. 1)
Unfortunately in the two county seats of the North Hungarian region (Miskolc and Salgótarján) both
the number of bedplaces and the bednights spent show a decrease. In two outlier subregions
improving trends can be observed: in Mezőkövesd Subregion the utilization of collective tourist
accommodation increased by 50 %, but the number of bed places did not change. Another outlier is
the Hatvan Subregion, where similar processes took place with significant decreasing number of
beds. In five subregions both of these indicators improved and these subregions seem to be the
winners of this decade: Rétság, Bélapátfalva, Sárospatak, Abaúj-hegyköz and the Tokaj Subregion.
Despite this considerable development is still questionable, in that growth started from a rather low
level in most cases.
HEALTH TOURISM IN HUNGARY
Health tourism has an increasing role both in Hungarian and in the international tourism supply. In
the last years many health tourism investments have been implemented as a main object of the
tourism development strategy. These investments mainly mean medical bath developments. The
main problem is that the economic and regional effects of these improvements are lower than the
expectation of the investors. According to Molnár Cs.-Kincses Á.-Tóth G. (2009) the positive
effects of the medical bath developments in Hajdúszoboszló, Mezőkövesd and Orosháza can be
observed in the given settlements, while the surrounding villages are affected only to a smaller
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