SWOT Analysis - Central Europe

The state intervention and assistance are mostly palpable by the program
funding of the ECC. After completing the cultural season however, the
central government resources are going to fall back and the maintenance
costs will fall to the local government. Thus, in the future we can count on a
significant shift of rate. Pécs, despite the difficulties, can realize a significant
profit by the end of the 2010 year, as it succeeded to bring together and
coordinate many attractive and colourful performances, and programs to
the city. It is also noteworthy because the economic crisis is felt in a very
eloquent way in the European Capital of Culture success rate. The capital of
Lithuania, Vilnius was deeply affected by the crisis despite the series of events;
the revenue from cultural tourism dropped by 15 percent drop while another
European Capital of Culture 2009, Linz, Austria could realize only slightly, 11.4
percent increase in hotel room bookings during the ECC year. The Hungarian
experts say the signs are favourable for Pécs, and it is conceivable that results
of the Hungarian city even surpass Linz’s.
6.4The supported activities of the public sector
The biggest problem regarding the cultural events according to one of our
interviewee a contemporary artist of Pécs, that there is a sort of dilettantism
from the part of leadership, they don’t dare not undertake true artistic events,
and partly the decisions are made from above by people who have no
serious artistic background, so they don’t even has any credibility from the
professionals. The standard of the programs are only reached the level of the
junk mass media. With that mentality we won’t be taken seriously in any
national and especially in international forums. Moreover, without adequate
infrastructure framework, we cannot appear in the European audience, as
there are no large spaces where with high-quality events, exhibitions can be
held. It appears that the city waived the fine arts, because it carries little
value for the politics, does not provide sufficient opportunity for the politicians
to appear in public. Although Pécs is a cultural stronghold partly because,
there were and there are internationally recognized artists as well.