The Measurable Predominance of Weekend Trips in Established Tourism Regions—The Case of Visitors from Budapest at Waterside Destinations

Abstract

Short trips to weekend destinations are less researched than more conventional forms of tourism involving longer trips and overnight stays, because quantitative data are hard to procure on the behavior of such weekend tourists. As a result, the effects of these day trips on secondary destinations cannot be measured, yet weekend tourism does contribute to the economic sustainability of many tourism regions. In this study, we analyzed geotagged photography uploaded to Flickr.com in the Budapest metropolitan area, the Danube Bend north of the Hungarian capital, and the Northern Balaton Region. Analysis of the spatio-temporal activity of photographers revealed Flickr users who live in the analyzed regions or in foreign countries, identifying the locals, weekend visitors from Budapest, those from other Hungarian regions, and foreign tourists. The predominance of visitors from Budapest was measured in both of the water-side destinations, and the spatial patterns of such visitors were more dispersed than the more concentrated spatial patterns of foreign tourists. These results show how day-trippers spread out the economic effects of tourism to much wider geographic areas than conventional tourists. Therefore, more focus should be directed toward these previously invisible forms of visits among the scientific community, policy makers, and the tourism industry.