An EU program to support the development of sustainable tourism has been launched in Szeged

At a press conference preceding the opening conference of the project, which is implemented with direct European Union support, Sándor Nagy (Szeged is Renewing) said that Szeged’s tourism has developed spectacularly in recent years, with the city regularly among the five most popular domestic travel destinations on long weekends on accommodation booking portals.

Significant tourism developments have been implemented in Szeged, and the ongoing rehabilitation of the city center is also increasing the city’s attractiveness. The three-year project, which was launched in April and is being led by Szeged, aims to create a framework that will enable the settlement, which defines itself as a green city, to develop tourism in a way that is also supported by the local population, the politician said.

The project, which is being implemented as part of the Danube Regional Programme, involves 14 municipalities, tourism agencies and destination management organisations from ten countries – Hungary, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria and Ukraine – and 12 associated thematic partners have also joined the initiative – the deputy mayor announced. He added that the total budget of the project is 2.5 million euros, of which Szeged’s share of the funding is 333 thousand euros (133 million forints).

One of the goals of the project is to develop solutions that help reduce and balance the environmental impacts caused by tourism. An important task is to address the problems caused by “overtourism”, as an example of which Sándor Nagy – a participant in the project – mentioned Dubrovnik, where the number of people entering the old town had to be limited due to the high number of visitors.