Balanced or unbalanced development? An evaluation approach to tourism development in South Transdanubia, Hungary

Abstract

Investigating the effectiveness of regional tourism support is always relevant in tourism research, especially in the European Union. However, in recent decades researchers and regional development actors concentrated predominantly on concrete financial-economic aspects based on the monitoring systems of the European integration. Based on this circumstance, the principal objective of this article is to offer various aspects on the research of the effectiveness of tourism subsidies, employing a spatial-geographical perspective. The article aims to determine whether there is a correlation between the presence of tourism attractions, existing tourism demand, and the regional allocation of the awarded subsidies. An elaborate evaluation approach was applied in a NUTS 2 region of Hungary, South Transdanubia. However, the method can be used in different regional levels as well since it is based on settlement-level data. Another claim of the article is that the demonstrated monitoring aspects can further contribute to a more effective regional policy approach concerning the evaluation of tourism developments.