Budapest bachelor parties - Millions of pounds spent

Budapest, the Hungarian capital is still among the favourite cities for the partying tourists. Specializing in party weekends has become an important branch for the Hungarian tourism sector: the lads (mainly British) annually spend around 1 milliard HUF (£28.5million) in Budapest.

- Cheap flights-says British Alex without thinking when asked about his opinion for the reason why thousands of his country-fellowmen organize stagnight weekend parties in Hungary. I pause a bit, expecting him to say something about the architecture or the excellent cuisine, but no: we have identified the main reason for their interest.

Alex’s stagnight, held in Budapest not too long ago was totally atypical – but only as far as its organization went. On one hand the young English man lives here in Budapest, so he invited his friends over, as it is a necessary element in the British stagnight-culture to be held in foreign cities. On the other hand – because of the city’s unfamiliarity – party tour agencies are generally used. Naturally, Alex did not need it, but he is about the only one. In the UK there was special tourism branch for the parties even when Dublin was the most popular target. After the expansion of the EU in 2004 suddenly the Eastern Wild Romance came into fashion, although here using somebody who knows the area as an escort is very important to survive. (According to the startling data of the British Foreign Office 4% of the youth partying abroad are taken into custody.)

However, Budapest has some distinctive features compared to the other cities in the region: the tour operators advertise the Hungarian capital as the most bustling and cosmopolitan city in Eastern-Europe. The biggest British specialist tour operator, Pissup.com lists Budapest as the second best for partying, right after Prague’s enormous skanzen, and we run rings around Krakow or Tallinn. Last year 7000 guests arrived through them and 5000 this year so far –Jacy Meyer, the company’s marketer told us. Summing up the data of the biggest operators, Budapest annually receives around 16-18 thousand excited Brits, and according to our estimation they generally spend an £150 extra (not including the plane ticket). Thus, they leave about 1milliard HUF in the various hotels, restaurants and spas in Budapest.

It is not only the hotels that the operators arrange for the groups. They show both reliable striptease bars to them, and organize other programs as well. Basically, they earn their living from this: at Pissup.com we were told that because of the discounts received from their standard partners they can arrange for an eventful weekend for 30% less than if somebody wanted to try it by themselves, provided they could even find the necessary things on the internet at all. For example, quading is a frequent program: it is riding a four-wheeled bike on the track built for this reason. The operator, Xtreme Tours has already learned to deal with the arriving Brits: those, who have too much hangover are not allowed on the motorbikes, and they don’t turn a hair if the groom turns up dressed as a chicken or in handcuffs. But it is not only because of the expected unexpectancy that they are fond of the foreign guests: Gabriella Barth, one of the company’s managers told us that almost half of their income comes from the British party tourists.

István Makai, whose downtown restaurant-club, the Portside de Cuba has been Pissup.com’s partner since an escort took a group there, also mentions positive experiences. He immediately asked for the contacts of the operator. In his opinion the rest of the guests do not mind either when 30 Brits have dinner next to them, although funny situations can occur. – A couple of weeks ago there was an English stag night and a Hungarian hen night in the same room at the same time, and there was a striptease girl for the lads, and a chippendale boy for the girls. It turned out to be very good fun, they had a great time with each other.

Roland Szabó program organizer for HaraShow, specializing mainly in programs for women underlines that the Brits can let themselves go much more than Hungarian people. In his opinion, we can even take this over from them and he would miss not only the lack of income if the Brits would not come because of the strict smoking ban intended in 2009. But this risk is not real at the moment: for example, Ryanair’s three new flights to Budapest from English cities are probably not based on the winter tourism from the Hungarian capital to the North of England.

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