A Hungarian right-wing party has expressed its deep shock and concern following the revelation in the Hungarian press that the state-funded Magyar Turizmus Zrt, together with several foreign-owned Budapest hotel chains, is planning to launch a campaign in the autumn which hurts the feelings of millions of Hungarians.
The main lure of the campaign is to attract foreign tourists to Hungary providing four nights’ accommodation for the price of three. The party have vigorously protested about choice of the name for the campaign: „Invasion”. The slogan of the campaign is: „Everybody stayed longer than planned in Budapest: Romans by 400 years, Turks by 150, Russians by 45, and now you can stay one free night longer!” The Magyar Turizmus Zrt. – according to the statement of the party – is exploiting the extreme suffering of millions of Hungarians during history to popularise the country”. The party refuses to accept that „some incompetent bunglers commit such a smear campaign” against the country on the 50th anniversary of the 1956 Revolution.
Incidentally, the slogan of the campaign that styles itself „unusually witty and self-ironic” is dotted with historical mistakes; neither the Romans nor the Russians have ever invaded Hungary. The former could not, as Hungary did not exist then, the latter did not, as Hungary’s occupation was carried out by the Soviet Union and not the „Russians”. This wholesale condemnation would rightly hurt any self-respecting Russian person.
„If that is the best the elite of Hungarian tourism industry is capable of, they could as well spend their Euro 80,000 budget in another way and take the rather perverse choice of symbol for the campaign, the Budapest Statue of Liberty off their planned website” – the statement says.
They demand that the minister change the name and motto of the campaign immediately, cancel the development of the related website, name those responsible and oblige them to refund costs incurred. The party is calling on all sensible people working in tourism to support our appeal with feedback until the launch of the campaign.
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