The Hungarian Tourism Agency (HTA) is launching its first, comprehensive Budapest-centred foreign ad campaign. In the international campaign, which will be launched on 15 May, advertising in online, print and television media will be appearing on the most important foreign source markets for tourism, CEO of the HTA Zoltán Guller announced at a press conference in Budapest on Monday.

During the next four year’s Hungary’s government will be paying particular attention to the capital’s tourism, in cooperation with the Municipality of Budapest, he added, explaining that creating a tourism brand for Budapest that provides a framework for the international campaigns of the upcoming years is of key importance to the capital’s new touristic image.

The main goal of the campaign is to highlight the capital’s location and programme opportunities that are attractive to visitors who are open and motivated to enjoying quality experiences and who have a high level of tourism spending, he explained, stressing that the HTA would like Budapest to be a top European capital, ahead of Prague and on the same level as Vienna. In other words, if someone is travelling to or around Europe it should go without saying that as well as visiting London and Paris, they must also see Budapest.

According to Mr. Guller, Budapest’s new touristic image is built on the “Spice of Europe” concept, which expresses the fact that visitors to the city can find everything that is characteristic of a classical European capital, including historical heritage, wide-ranging cultural programmes, first class gastronomy and a flourishing fashion scene.

A new touristic logo has been designed as part of the Spice of Europe campaign, in addition to which a new website and creative content has been made available, and a new image film has been created that showcases Budapest and its metaphoric spice. It shows people that the city provides easy access to a host of experiences. In the film, a young couple takes the viewer on a tour of the city, wearing clothes that are the work of Hungarian fashion designers, he explained.

65 percent of the campaign’s advertising budget will be spent on online publication, 25 on television publication and the remainder on printed adverts.

Our number one global partner during the course of the campaign will be CNN, and the image film will be broadcast 816 times on CNN’s television channels in the North American and European regions, reaching some 205 million households.

20 percent of the campaign’s media budget will be spent on the communications space of various airlines, with adverts appearing on board Iberia, Ryanair, British Airways, Lufthansa, WizzAir, American Airlines and United Airlines flights.

Another significant part of the media budget, some 20 percent, will be spent on advertising in major travel and lifestyle magazines, in addition to which adverts will also be published on Google, YouTube and Instagram. The advertising will be appearing in Budapest’s most important sources of tourists, including Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, France and Italy. Social media and online adverts will also be appearing in Canada, Ireland, Austria and Switzerland.

The campaign’s creative design and production, which includes, amongst others, photography, filming, international royalties and website development, is 235 million forints gross (EUR 745,000), and 1.3 billion forints gross (EUR 4.12 million) will be spent on international media purchasing during the first phase. The Spice of Europe international campaign, which will be launched on Tuesday, is the first step in a series of similar campaigns, with a cultural version appearing in autumn and a version showcasing Budapest in winter becoming available towards the end of the year, Mr. Guller emphasised. Two other communications campaigns are also being launched by the MTA parallel to the international campaign: a campaign to boost domestic tourism for the spring and summer period, and a regional campaign promoting Hungary’s provincial tourism destinations, the head of the Hungarian Tourism Agency told the press.

(Ministry of National Development/MTI)