Posted by: Marian Visser van Klaarwater Posted on: Thursday 07 October 2010, 09:49

USCS Budapest initiated the establishment of a Discover America Committee Hungary in March 2010. Twenty two local companies, tour operators, airlines, hotels, T&T publishers, etc. expressed interest in being founders of the committee which is under registration with the local Court of Registration. The Discover America Committee of Hungary is open for active (local companies) and inactive (US based or European representatives of US based) travel and tourism members.

Board members

The members of the committee were presented to the trade and to the press on 30 September, by Mr. Robert Peaslee, commercial counselor of the US Embassy. The committee chair is Mr. Miklós Walkó, vice chair is Mr. Zsolt Szebeni, Turizmus Kft., the treasurer is Mr. Adrian Grey, LeMeridien Hotel. The board members are Ms. Krisztina Kovács, American Airlines, Mr. András Simon, Weco-Travel, Mr Dániel Tallós, American Express, the secretary is Ms. Katalin Barázda, US Embassy Budapest. Committee is open to everyone who agrees and accepts the committee s bylaw. The Committee plans to arrange presence at the largest travel fair, UTAZAS and major countryside cities in 2011. It supports Pow Wow 2011 in San Francisco. For further information, please contact:

Mr Miklós Walkó, walko@itthon.hu;

Ms. Katalin Barázda, katalin.barazda@TRADE.gov

Pictures from the reception, organized by the Commercial Counselor of the US Embassy can be seen here.

United efforts needed

The marketing efforts of the Tourism Office of Budapest and the Budapest and Surroundings Region should be combined and a Tourism Destination Management office should be set up. These comments came from Mr Gergely Horváth, CEO of the Hungarian National Tourist Office, who was speaking at a conference in Budapest last week. He added that the HNTO aims to increase the number of domestic guest nights by 1% and foreign guest nights by 2% in 2011, while the number of nights conference tourists spend in Hungary is targeted for a 5% hike.

Destination marketing

Text: Marian Visser van Klaarwater