Tourism Center in Barcs with EU Support

The tourism center of Barcs, SW Hungary, built with a budget of around HUF 400 million (mostly EU funding), was inaugurated this Friday. The center on the bank of the river Drava was created by renovating and rebuilding a former salt warehouse.

At the inauguration ceremony, President of the Republic Katalin Novák pointed out that Croatia is now a member of the Schengen area, the Hungarian-Croatian border is now freely crossable and the Dráva river no longer separates Hungary and Croatia, but connects them as a gateway.

The mayor of Barcs, Tibor Csaba Koós, said that the creation of the tourist center had made it possible to renovate an old historic building in the town, at what was once the busiest port on the banks of the Dráva, where "what is needed now are not stevedores, captains and merchants, but visitors who want to explore the landscape and who love and respect the values of the river."

According to the event's press release, the tourist center was created as part of a Hungarian-Croatian program, largely funded by the European Union.

The building includes a café, a bicycle storage and four horse stables for horseback tourists, as well as interactive exhibitions to introduce visitors to the history of Barcs, its transport, culture and traditions. The tourist center will also offer boat storage facilities.