This week Budapest 2024’s Olympic bid received support from the Hungarian Hotel & Restaurant Association (HHRA) after a series of presentations attended by 96 per cent of the hotels in the Balaton Corridor region.
Vice Chairman of Budapest 2024 and Government Tourism Commissioner Gusztav Bienerth who attended the meetings said, “our proven capability of staging major sports events in the region, coupled with the robustness of our plans, has led to this overwhelming support from hoteliers in the Veszprem and Balaton area.”
The group agreed to supply 8,799 rooms during the Olympic Games in the Balaton region where Sailing, Golf, Aquatics and Handball events are planned to be staged.
In total, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) requires a minimum of just over 40,000 rooms to be made available to various client groups during Games time with guarantees that they will be priced competitively at non-Games market prices and meet minimum quality standards.
In the phase 1 bid documents submitted by Budapest earlier this year 7,718 rooms were said to be immediately available in the Balaton corridor with additional hotel construction planned bringing the Games time total to 9,725 rooms. Overall 103,246 rooms are already available across the entire Games plan footprint – well above the minimum.
Istvan Kovacs, Chief Secretary of the HHRA, attended the meeting where leading hoteliers from 144 hotels and chains in the region participated, along with spokespeople for local tourism associations representing small hotels and commercial accommodation.
Kovacs said, “we are delighted to continue the work we have started in Budapest with the bid committee early last month. The fact that a large proportion of the hoteliers in the area are interested in committing their room stock to Budapest 2024 signifies their experience as hosts to both tourists and world-class athletes, and also that they recognize the good business sense of the proposal.”
Budapest is competing with Rome, Paris and Los Angeles for the 2024 Olympics. The host city will be selected by the IOC in September 2017.
