Overtourism and the night-time economy: a case study of Budapest

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the phenomenon of overtourism with specific reference to the night-time economy (NTE) in Budapest, Hungary. Design/methodology/approach The research took place between September and December 2017 in the so-called “party quarter” of Budapest – District VII. The chosen methods included mapping, observation, interviews and questionnaires with local residents, visitors and tourists. Findings Partying opportunities are valued highly by tourists and the majority of customers in the bars are tourists. Many people feel that there are too many tourists in the area, although few had a bad experience with tourists. The most common complaints were the dirt and litter, public urination, street crime and noise. Most respondents would welcome a better cleaning service, more bins, more police, more public toilets and better street lighting. Research limitations/implications The research was not undertaken in the high season, older residents were slightly under-represented and wider research across the whole city would give a more balanced perspective. Practical implications Recommendations are made for managing the NTE better in order to improve the experience of tourists and visitors and to improve the local resident quality of life. Social implications It is hoped that this research may prompt local authorities to take local resident perceptions and experiences into account by creating better management measures and regulations. Originality/value This is the first paper to provide data from the perspective of three main stakeholder groups in the context of the NTE in Budapest.

Tourism and the night: towards a broader understanding of nocturnal city destinations

“…Just as studies of the urban night have overly fixated on traditional (hedonistic) nightlife, studies of tourism at night have also tended to focus on established night-time activities: drinking, eating, theatre, and other forms of entertainment. There has been some attention dedicated to the rising popularity of night markets, particularly in Asia (Hsieh & Chang, 2006;Lee, Chang, Hou, & Lin, 2008), and there is a substantial body of work on other activities associated with the night and tourism, such as alcotourism and sex-tourism (Bell, 2008;Pinke-Sziva, Smith, Olt, & Berezvai, 2019;Sanders, 2017;Thurnell-Read, 2012) . Since the 1990s there has also been academic recognition of tourist-oriented occasions such as hen and stag parties, music events, and other festivals typically occurring in the night (Smith, 2016).…”

The Sharing Economy and Sustainability of Urban Destinations in the (Over)tourism Context: The Social Capital Theory Perspective

“…Thus, the externalities resulting from the SE in (over)tourism context on the community level could be a laboratory for SE's influence in general.Although sustainability issues involving the SE have been discussed quite often in the tourism development context [1,24,26,29], these studies were contextual, based on the case studies, and also related to various conceptual frameworks(or none, if not indicated by the authors). The majority of them identify and characterize the positive/negative impact of the SE on local communities by referring to respondents' opinions or figures indicating a certain stage or level of the phenomenon [3,4,30,31]. Theoretical studies investigating the process of the SE impact itself through the prism of concrete theoretical frameworks can hardly be found.…”

“…The other works are based on tourism-specific concepts: tourism degrowth theories [42], the social carrying capacity concept [4], Doxey's [43] Irridex model and Butler's [44] Tourism Areal Life Cycle Model. Alternatively, they design their own research frameworks [25,30,45]. Two literature reviews conclude the set of literature.Moreover, in the conclusion part, we used more general literature referring to both tourism development and social capital.…”

Marketing smart tourism cities – a strategic dilemma

“…Maybe, though this is perhaps particularly applicable to some of the earlier models in the smart cities longitudinal spectrum. In fact, there is growing consensus around the fact that technological innovation (Pinke-Sziva et al, 2019;Skeli and Schmid, 2019) can alleviate some of the effects of overtourism, particularly in the context of smart tourism destinations (Gretzel and Scarpino-Johns, 2018). This includes 'smarter' transport solutions, even if we know that residents and tourists will differ considerably in their assessment of urban mobility improvements (Albalate and Bel, 2010).…”