Do Ruin Bars Ruin Lives? The Impacts of Tourism - A Case Study of Budapest’s Party District

Absztrakt (kivonat)

Aim:Tourism develops in an unprecedented rate. With budget airlines offering an abundance of cheap flights, it has never been easier to see the world, one city at a time. There are some effects that need to be considered, in order for this activity to remain sustainable, which is described as developments which do not hinder the prospect of future generations. The aim of this thesis is to identify the impacts of tourism in the 7th District of Budapest. Since the „party district” received significant publicity in the past few years, and especially since the COVID-19 pandemic started, the local dynamics caught my interest. Sustainability implies that all stakeholders’ interests should be taken into consideration, but the fast-paced urbanisation, unplanned development and lack of regulations have left local residents miserable, combatting noise-pollution, littering, and illegal apartment rental. This thesis aims to gather the impacts perceived by the inhabitants of the District, in order to facilitate the implementation of regulations and to mediate in between the parties in the dispute. It also shows the main topics in connection to this question discussed on social media channels by the users. Structure: Overtourism and the Night-Time Economy are widely researched topics in several European capitals. In order to provide an extensive foundation to this thesis, secondary research was conducted by analysing results of these already existent studies, and familiarise myself with Doxey’s Irritation Index Model, along with Butler’s Tourism Area Life Cycle model, staples in tourism research. Puczko and Ratz detail in their book „The Impacts of Tourism” (2002) several pairs of socio-cultural and economic changes caused by tourism. After the holistic review of academic literature, the problem definition chapter introduces the basic traits of Hungarian tourism, changes incurred since the pandemic started, and briefly walks the reader through the history of the District. This is followed by the methodology chapter and the secondary research, in which the impacts of tourism applicable to Elisabeth-town are identified. The results of the primary research, participant-observation netnography conclude this thesis, together with a summary of the findings. Methodology: Both secondary and primary research are carried out for the sake of complete coverage. The secondary research is a synthesis of already existent research results, which helps identify the impacts perceived in the 7th District. The primary research method is participant-observation netnography, inspired by Ariel Mitev and Krisztina Dornyei in the „Alternative Qualitative Resarch Methods Handbook” (2015). Netnography is an immensely useful tool for the analysis of patterns in social interactions of a community. The research was carried out with the help of the social listening platform SentiOne, which has a search feature that finds all mentions of a keyword on the major social media channels. Based on the internal algorythm, sentiments are matched to the mentions, as well as a temporal distribution of reach figures, dating back as long as 3 years ago. Results: A search string was developed by trial and error, which yielded over 63 thousand results. Having analysed the mentions, Airbnb, the silence and terraces regulation, and initiatives to reduce traffic proved to generate the highest engagement. Aware of these topics, a sub-string was created for each, so that they can be compared and contrasted. Caution needs to be exercised when considering the results, as the netnography method has limitations. For one, the internet penetration rate for the older generation - which is a major stakeholder, and victims of severe noise pollution – is lower than in case of their younger counterparts. Another trend is that users only comment on posts when their situation forces them to, or if they would like to complain. This explains that the negative mentions are almost twice as many in number than the positive ones. People are pessimistic about the future of the District, as the pandemic forced tourism to come to a halt. Peter Niedermuller has passed a legislation of questionable gravity, which left many upset, mostly local owners and entrepreneurs, and satisfied a few, who were anticipating the regulations. Analysing the results shows that the economic impacts are overwhelmingly positive but the overdependence of the industry on international tourist arrivals endangers the area’s sustainability. Users feel the need for the regulations to be enforced, giving voice to their doubts about the authorities’ efforts and a lack of police patrols, as deviant behavior is on the rise due to the demonstration effect.