Last night the Embassy was full of tour operators, agencies and attraction owners from Hungary and the UK, but also from Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Serbia and Slovakia. They had spent the day in a seminar and tailored meetings organised by Visit Britain – the organisation that markets Britain overseas and develops the visitor economy. Budapest’s Deputy Mayor Dr Gabor Bagdy kindly attended as Guest of Honour.
Last year some 350,000 Britons visited Hungary (not as many as at the peak of about 500,000 just after the country emerged from Communism) but pretty substantial. I met a lot of them at the Sziget Music Festival last August! And some 300,000 Hungarians visited the UK – many of them seeing the 6 of the world’s 50 most visited attractions that can be found in London alone (Trafalgar Square, the Tate Modern, the British Museum, the National Gallery, the National History Museum and The London Eye, since you ask!).
In my brief remarks to the guests, I told them how the UK is expected to attract a bonanza number of tourists over the next 2 years – in connection with the Royal wedding in April 2011; the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012; and Her Majesty the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, also in 2012. These events will focus the eyes of the world on all of Britain – the culture; heritage; natural beauty; and dynamic and innovatory business environment. If you don’t get to the UK to see some of this first hand, you may be sorry later!