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humour
Humour refers to a sense of the ludicrous, absurdly
incongruous, comic or amusing in a happening,
action, situation or expression of ideas. Tourism is
a rich source of humour because it brings into
juxtaposition people of different cultures, interests
and expectations with a consequent high potential
for contrast, miscommunication and misunderstanding.
Tourists in particular, because they are in
an unaccustomed environment, may engage in
inappropriate behaviours with bizarre consequences.
Lack of familiarity between tourists and
residents may lead both to fall back on stereotypes
to guide their interactions and this increases
the likelihood of occurrence of communication
breakdowns. Since most people in the Western
world are familiar with tourism situations, they
constitute a setting to which they can easily relate
and which is readily exploited by humorists in
many forms of media including novels, film,
T-shirts and cartoons. Although there is a wealth if
examples of tourism humour, these have yet to be
collated or examined as the subject of rigorous
research. Thus, tourism humour is a widespread
phenomenon which has yet to receive the academic
attention it deserves.
Further reading
Coren, A. �ed.) �1987) `Travel number', Punch 292,
21 January. �Contains many excellent examples
of tourism humour.)
Lodge, D. �1991) Paradise News, Harmondsworth:
Penguin. �A humorous novel.)
Hungary
GEOFFREY WALL, CANADA
Hungary played a key role in the changes that took
place in the Eastern European region. The
transformation from a monolithic structure to a
multiparty system was carried out peacefully,
according to a national consensus. The Republic
of Hungary is a parliamentary democracy. The
level of political openness of the country has
significantly increased the interest in Hungary
Hungary 291
which in turn contributes to development of
investment and tourism.
As with all the ex-socialist countries of Central
and Eastern Europe, Hungary is faced by serious
economic problems. The acceleration of inflation is
coupled with a decrease in production, and the
efforts to reduce the national debt have weighed
down on the standard of living. One of the most
important indicators of the economic transformation
is the privatisation process, which is still under
way. But as the result of this process, the level of
unemployment is continually increasing. Despite
these problems, Hungary has a stable economy in
the region which appears in the expending of
foreign investments.
Over the past decades Hungary has attracted
millions of tourists, partly due to its advantageous
location in central Europe and partly due to its
special political-economic system. In 1992, 20.2
million international tourists spent $1.23 billion. In
1997 these numbers were 17.3 million and $2.6
billion, respectively.
However, as a result of the changes of the 1990s,
the dynamic growth in tourism has been modified
to some extent. Although the number of tourists
exceeds by nearly four times the population of
Hungary, the ratio of tourists has decreased, the use
of registered accommodations is continuously
reducing and the structure of main generating
countries has been altered. In respect to domestic
and international tourists, Budapest and Lake
Balaton represent the main attractions. About 60
per cent of the total foreign tourism takes place in
these regions, and only 40 per cent of that is
distributed among the other regions of Hungary.
This territorial concentration is coupled with a
large seasonal fluctuation, which worsens the
negative impacts of tourism. In order to stop this
process, the country has to change its tourism
development strategy, Instead of mass tourism,
Hungary has to offer special tourism products that
meet the requirement of sustainability and are in
harmony with the international trends.
Hungary has a multi-level tourism coordination
system. The National Tourism Committee is the
highest decisive and consultative body in the
Ministry of Economics. The decisions and directives
of the committee are carried out by the
Tourism Department of the ministry. The Hungar-