Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2007. Sectio Scientarium Economicarum et Socialium. (Acta Academiae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 34)

Tóthné Igó Zsuzsanna: A tematikus utak hatása az Észak-Magyarországi Régió turizmusára

TÓTHNÉ IGÓ ZSUZSANNA* r A tematikus utak hatása az Észak-Magyarországi Régió turizmusára The Influence of Thematic Tours on the Development of the Tourism of the Region Thematic tours created the possibility of cooperation and joint presence of culture and tourism in the North Eastern region of Hungary. The above product can be created with the help of relatively small investment, and makes it possible for the tourist offer to be diverse in time and space, it contributes to the incorporation of earlier passive tourist resources, and it creates the prospects for attracting the attention of new categories in terms of demand for branches like cultural tourism, heritage tourism or wine tourism as well. It goes without saying that thematic journeys or tours bring benefits for the tourist activity of the region. Also, cultural and heritage centered activities help overcome critical issues in the tourist industry of the region like the otherwise difficult to handle limits imposed by seasons or the geographical, regional limits of the tourist industry. Another aspect 1 intend to clarify is that an accurately chosen thematic basis not only contributes to the diversification of tourist services in the respective region, but also contributes to the strengthening of the population's cultural identity. The North-Eastern Hungarian region offers a number of themes which through their autonomy and individual character also make it possible to organically link the given heritage or cultural tours to the already functioning greater European tours of the kind. These thematic tours impose the integration of less well known aspects of events with ones that have already acquired fame and thus they help reduce the otherwise possible decrease of regional concentration. Should the marketing activity be suitable, tourists from abroad could be offered better structured information and thus would be determined to spend longer time in the region. 1 intend to illustrate the theoretical issues discussed in my paper through a brief survey of the Palóc tour, which is one of the latest examples of thematic tours in the North Eastern Hungarian region. I conclude my presentation by stressing the fact that thematic tours impose a great sense of responsibility for the local authorities as well as for the local inhabitants, but if they manage to develop and maintain good relationships and Tóthné Igó Zsuzsanna PhD hallgató, Eszterházy Károly Főiskola, Gazdaságtudományi Intézet.