There are a bunch of fascinating interviews inside with various market players, from those involved in wine tourism to the new head of the Hungarian operations of Air France-KLM, but you will also find one of our famous Market Talk pieces.
Knowing how busy five-star hotel general managers are, we took a slightly different approach this time, asking them not to go into too much detail and instead provide a quick overview: speed and spontaneity were the order of the day. Even so, there was a remarkable degree of unanimity on certain questions.
Asked what was missing from the Budapest mix, for example, almost everyone called for more direct flights, especially to and from the United States. This makes sense; in a world where the well-healed traveler has ever more choice, you need to make it as easy as possible for them to come here. If you have to make even one connecting flight, let alone two or more, why wouldn’t you choose somewhere you can get to in one hop, like Vienna, say, or Prague?
The other most commonly mentioned ask was for more luxury experiences, and particularly high-end retail. That is an echo of what the commercial real estate players were telling us in our stand-alone Top 50 Real Estate Executives publication, which is about to go on sale (forgive the blatant plug, but you’ll find it in our webshop). “Experiential” is rapidly becoming the watchword for the retail industry. It is no longer enough to “Build it, and they will come,” to misquote the 1989 movie “Field of Dreams.” One missing element I wasn’t surprised to see identified was a “contemporary convention center” to attract more from the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions sector (inevitably known to hoteliers as MICE). I have been interviewing Budapest hotel GMs for more than 25 years, and they were bemoaning the lack of a proper facility way back then.
We deliberately asked our GMs to think beyond their own hotels in telling us the hospitality setting they most enjoy. Their answers to this question, as well as their recommendations for visiting VIP guests to get a genuine flavor of the country, reveal an understanding of, and a deep affection for, Budapest as a destination. There were also suggestions of trips beyond the city limits, such as a truffle-hunting expedition, or a visit to the wine regions or Lake Balaton. Then again, if a hotel boss doesn’t know where to go, who does?
Robin Marshall
Editor-in-chief
This article was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of June 27, 2025.
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