The region of Lake Balaton is the second most popular tourist destination in Hungary after the capital. Today, approximately 12% of the international tourist arrivals and 3.5% of the added value generated by Hungarian tourism enterprises are realized around Lake Balaton. Formerly a bathing destination for the elite, Lake Balaton became one of the most important areas for mass tourism in Hungary in the second half of the 20th century. In the 1970s and 1980s, it played a significant role in the production of foreign exchange from the West. However, the regime change in 1990 brought many changes. State ownership was replaced by the private sector, and there was little or no scope for the former state or corporate holidays. As a result of political and economic changes, inflation, and a significant drop in real incomes, tourism on Lake Balaton has declined spectacularly, with a particularly large number of foreign tourists disappearing from the system. The new shift came in the 2000s with the accession to the EU, when more and more people turned back to the lake. This required local development plans based on long-term strategic objectives. The paper will describe the developments that have taken place in the basic utility infrastructure of the region after 1990, in its tourism offer, with a special focus on accommodation. It will present the changes in visitor flows in recent decades, both domestic and foreign.
Réka et al. (Sun,) studied this question.