The Hungarian Hospitality Employers’ Association (VIMOSZ) is a member of the COSME funded project TOURBAN.
As part of the first work package of the project, our association carried out, among other things, an interview survey, which provided an overview of the views of SMEs in the tourism sector on sustainability. Based on the survey it can be stated that the vast majority of our interviewees think that sustainability is something that is important to their company, mostly morally because our resources are limited but it is also strongly influenced by the expectations of their partners and customers. For some companies, this is already part of the (long-term) business policy and this gives the business its uniqueness. We would mention it as a commendable example of our walking tour organizers who base their entire business and all their work on sustainability so social involvement is extremely important to them. Nowadays their primary target group is the locals, so for them, sustainability is a great competitive advantage. The locals can be tourists at home, they receive cultural information without using any polluting means.
In addition, our interviewees almost without exception agreed that sustainability contributes to their competitiveness however, each market player approached the issue from a different perspective. There were those who put it that way that it could contribute to the competitiveness if it helps to increase profitability while others say it helps as long as few do it and advertise it. These latters said that there are only a few of the accommodation providers in Budapest do so yet, so it is currently a competitive advantage. The respondent travel agency managers agree that it represents a competitive advantage on the longer term, strengthens the market position, it turns up already in the offer requests, almost as expected as ISO used to be.
For more information on the project and the results of the Work Package 1, click here.