Gay Tourism in Budapest: An Exploratory Study on Gay Tourists’ Motivational Patterns for Traveling to Budapest

Abstract

In contrast to East European cities, West European cities have increasingly targeted gay and lesbian travelers as part of their tourism campaigns. In order to exemplarily analyze the potential of international gay tourism for Budapest, nineteen semi-structured, in-depth interviews with non-Hungarian gay travelers, about their motivation to come and their experiences, were conducted in different gay establishments in the city. One result of the study is that their motivations for travel did not differ from “mainstream tourists”; while their expectations about gay life in the city were negative, their experiences were mixed. Implications for Budapest’s city-marketing are discussed.