Some socio-economic aspects of regional development at the lake Balaton

Abstract

Lake Balaton is among the most important touristic destinations in Hungary. During the last decades the attractiveness of the Lake has been decreasing considerably. This fact can be explained by exogenous factors (re-organisation of system of Hungarian tourism, decreasing domestic purchasing power, improved accessibility of further destinations) but – at the same time-the lack of strategy and of long-range planning can be considered as important causes of failures. The aim of the current article is to analyse the key actors and their strategies around the Lake. The understanding the structure of net of actors and their interest is an important starting point for determination of basic directions of development on base of consensus-seeking. The most important lesson of the analysis, that the Balaton-tourism should be approached as a complex and dynamic system, which should be adapted to the changing demands.