Posted by: Marian Visser van Klaarwater Posted on: Monday 27 September 2010, 13:51

New look to winter campaign with spas

Based on feedback from hotels, the Hungarian National Tourist Office is renewing the Budapest Winter Invitation (BWI) campaign. The BWI, lasting from 15 November till 31 March, receives a budget of HUF 240 million (0.9 million euros) from the participating partners. Alongside 2=3 and 3=4 offers guests will also receive a free admission ticket to the Széchenyi, Gellért or Rudas spas. European cities are currently filled with discounted offers, so to stand out from the crowd Budapest needs to focus on its unique feature, health tourism, said Mr Gergely Horváth, CEO of the HNTO.

HNTO

In order to promote the campaign, the HNTO is once again teaming up with lastminute.com, which delivers the booking engine for the redesigned www.budapestwinter.com website and helps in marketing. The website of the BWI is available in 8 languages; the primary markets are the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Scandinavia and Russia, with neighbouring countries ranked as secondary markets. The BWI, launched in 2006, brought 60,000 additional guest nights to the Hungarian capital last year. It is expected that this achievement can be repeated this year. Suppliers with discounted offers can join until 15 October; registration fees remain at last year s levels.

Remake for Budapest

In order to improve the city s competitiveness, Budapest needs a new image. That was the main message to come out of the Budapest Image Conference held last week. Mr István Tarlós, who is standing for the post of mayor of Budapest, emphasized that if he is elected, he will transform the current, somewhat controversial image of the city. He said that the new image should focus on more suitable characteristics that better fit the opportunities offered by the city. Rather than positioning itself as a global metropolis, Budapest should focus on being a regional economic and cultural centre. The Budapest Business Region and AERA Property have already put together a new image video focusing on new features.

The video can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0wkokaybWA