Budapest, dark and gloomy due to the lack of decorative lighting, repels tourists
Budapest may fall seriously because the capital’s most famous boulevard, Andrássy Street, was not decorated with the usual Christmas lights. According to analysts, the festive city has attracted many tourists in recent years, and these tourists spent a lot of time there. Lighting was solved not only abroad, but also in other Hungarian cities during the energy crisis. Budapest, on the other hand, is considered by many to be gloomy and dark – it was said in the M1 News.
Huge Christmas tree decorations, twinkling lights and crowds. Dósa Nádor Square in Debrecen is a real tourist attraction during the holiday season. “It’s amazing, we came from Budapest to look around, and we didn’t see anything like this there, so everything is really beautiful” – said a passerby.
The downtown of Debrecen was already decorated at the beginning of the month. But Dóm tér in Szeged is also lit up and awaits visitors: after dark, the square is bathed in real light. Strings of lights connect the central Christmas tree with the wooden houses on the edge of the square.
On Andrássy út in Budapest, the trees and lampposts were also illuminated every year during this period. Now, however, this is not the case.
Just like Oktogon and Nagykörút, they will also receive Christmas decorations in 2022.
Mayor Gergely Karácsony decided to save money on decorative lighting in the capital because of the recession. According to their calculations, they saved HUF 28 million from the HUF 400 billion budget.
The Advent tram in Miskolc has a gingerbread pattern on the outside and is illuminated with string lights during the holiday season. This was also the case with the Budapest light tram, which in a few years became a real tourist destination in Budapest. But only until last year. This year, he also saved on light trams in the capital. From the outside, the Advent tram is hardly festive this year. And the inside was also decorated with only a few small garlands.
There is no Christmas lighting, but tens of millions of forints for consultants in Budapest
More and more people miss the Christmas atmosphere in Budapest. In particular, Andrássy út offers a depressing sight according to many, its lights have basically defined the Advent period in recent years.
The mayor’s new adviser has also been charged with agency
Gergely Karácsony’s new city diplomatic adviser has also been discussed as having non-public American connections.
“The mayor spends much more on consultants than he saves on decorative lighting” – explained the XXI. Century’s leading analyst on M1. According to Ervin Nagy, Gergely Karácsony’s decisions are based on thoughtlessness and inconsistency, because the lack of decorative lighting has a bad effect on tourism, for example.
“In such a case, one should always consider – and this is the biggest problem – what indirect effects this has on tourism, hospitality and other things. What the mayor’s critics are complaining about now is that these decisions are thoughtless, not calculated, and there is no impact study behind them” – said the analyst.
Pestisracok.hu already wrote two years ago that the mayor has 40 advisers who are paid HUF 30 million per month.
But this amount has increased even more since then.
The Magyar Nemzet repeatedly submits public interest data requests to the capital. It turns out that in recent years, there were 50, but former advisers who received 100 such findings that the benefit increased. In other words, he spends more on consultants in the capital every month than he saves on Christmas decorations.