Rethinking tourist attractions or community-building traditions in rural tourism

Abstract

The efforts to revive the folk traditions of Hungarian villages played an important role in the definition and attractiveness of rural tourism, which was rebooted during the years of the regime change. The food production activities of the villages were connected to special events, which were tourist attractions for the urbanites from the cities. However, the social and economic development has now resulted in a significant change, and a complete transformation can be observed in both the production of goods and in the related preservation of heritage.

The land ownership of the villages became concentrated in the hands of only a few farmers, while the number of cultivated crops drastically decreased. At the same time, the number of folk traditions related to farming also reduced dramatically. It is therefore justified to consider the rethinking of community-building rural tourism based on village traditions as integrally important. The research results of the last 30 years show that not enough attention has been paid to the folk values of rural tourism. Developments mainly favoured the development of accommodation, and thus the preservation of traditions was pushed into the background.

It is therefore important that this rethinking is followed by sound actions, and that we preserve the natural, spiritual, and cultural heritage left to us by our predecessors. The research aimed at uncovering the gaps and shortcomings that led to the current situation and attempted to find solutions to enhance the survival chances of the successfully rebooted rural tourism. The preservation of the still-living traditions should be treated as a national treasure, which can ensure the touristic appeal of the villages and the continued existence of rural communities based on common thinking! Thematization of the rural tourism offers and more effective marketing activities would generate more tourist arrivals, hence contributing to disadvantaged rural areas catching up and achieving sustainability goals.