Sustainability Assessment of Hungarian Lakeside Tourism Development

Abstract

Lakeside tourism plays a vital role in Hungary’s tourism, more than 20 % of the guest nights in Hungary spent at the country’s four lakeside destinations. These lakes have very different impacts on sustainability efforts, as their natural, social, economic and tourism characteristics are very different. Therefore, they also require tailor-made approaches to their development. In this paper, the tourism products which are planned to be developed at these tourism areas are considered to be the basis of the evaluation in terms of sustainability. A system of economic, social and environmental criteria used for the assessment and the result of the process is compared with the vulnerability of the supply types of the destinations. With this methodology, the best possible pathways toward sustainable tourism development can be determined in the regions and the key criteria can be determined, which are the most important at the comparison of the different supply types.