Gay Tourism in Budapest: An Exploratory Study on Gay Tourists' Motivational Patterns for Traveling to Budapest

Abstract In contrast to East European cities, West European cities have increasingly targeted gay and lesbian travelers as part of their tourism campaigns. In order to exemp larily analy ze the potential of international gay touris m for Budapest, nineteen semi-structured, in-depth interviews with non-Hungarian gay travelers, about their mot ivation to come and their experiences, were conducted in d ifferent gay establishments in the city. One result of the study is that their motivations for travel did not differ fro m "mainstream tourists"; while their expectations about gay life in the city were negative, their experiences were mixed. Imp licat ions for Budapest's city-marketing are discussed