46th Travel Exhibition and 32nd Budapest Boat Show

The 46th Travel Exhibition and 32nd Budapest Boat Show opened at the Hungexpo Budapest Congress and Exhibition Center on Thursday. The focus of the exhibition this year is on active and adventure tourism.

Klára Tihanyi, Director of the Utazás+ Exhibition, added that the Utazás+ Exhibition will be organized in a renewed form and content this year, with so-called islands of experience awaiting visitors between February 22 and 25, along with the Budapest Boat Show, the Caravan Salon and the E-bike Test&Show. Bulgaria will be the guest of honor of the exhibition abroad, while Gyula and Békés counties the guests of honor in Hungary. The 23 domestic and 28 foreign destinations will offer their travels at separate stands, with nearly 150 exhibitors waiting to welcome visitors, he explained.

As usual, the first day and a half of the event is dedicated to the professional audience, where, in addition to business meetings, tourism conferences and round-table discussions will be held.

Mariela Modeva, adviser to the Bulgarian Ministry of Tourism, representing the foreign guest of honor, said that Bulgaria's accession to the European area without borders, the Schengen area, for air and sea traffic in March will boost tourism. He said that in Bulgaria there are about 40,000 registered historical monuments (7 of which are on the UNESCO World Heritage List), 36 cultural reserves, 160 monasteries and about 330 museums and galleries.

The Budapest Boat Show, "Hungary's largest land port", opened at the same time as the Travel+ exhibition, with the Hungarian Sailing Association as its traditional strategic partner. However, this year the organizers of the exhibition have asked the Hungarian Sailing Academy and its Sailing at Home program to be the guest of honor of the boat show. This year is the year of the Olympic Games, which is why Olympians, former top athletes and Olympic hopefuls are given a special place.

Cycling is closely linked to active and adventure tourism, which is the focus of the exhibition: the E-bike Test&Show, which was presented for the first time last year, was a great success, so the organizers will again this year build a test track of almost 3,000 square meters where visitors can try out the electric bikes on display.

A traditionally popular event at the show is the Caravan Salon, where visitors can view and drive around the vehicles.