Reference about tourism accessibility

Introduction
The system of tourism regions in Hungary was established in 1998. During the setting up of these regions, the NUTS2 level of European planning-statistical regions was used as a reference. However, the boundaries of these European regions were modified when the tourism regions were established, as the latter made use of existing and coherent holiday districts. As a result, nine tourism regions were established by altering the seven planning-statistical regions (Fig. 1). The most important difference between the NUTS2 and the resulting tourism regions is that the Lake Balaton Tourism Region, being the second most relevant destination after the Budapest–Central Danube Basin Region, was established from parts of the Central and South Transdanubian and the West Pannonian planning-statistical regions. Additionally, the Lake Tisza Tourism Region was
established of settlements in the NUTS2 level Northern Hungarian and Northern Great Plain Regions. Though the smallest of such regions, the Lake Tisza Tourism Region underlined how its touristic character differentiated it from its surroundings. Finally, another important difference occurred in the Budapest–Central Danube Basin Tourism Region, which includes not only the NUTS2 level Central Hungarian Region, but further incorporates settlements from the Danube Bend Resort District in the Northern Hungarian and Central Transdanubian Regions.

Transport and tourism
Transport is one of the fundamental preconditions for the existence of tourism. It is a key element that links tourists to destinations to be accessed. Though the connection between tourism and transport has been widely examined previously there are
still significant gaps in this research topic. As pointed out by Knowles (1993), in many cases researchers have taken transport into account as a passive element in tourism, not as an integral part of tourism activities. Otherwise as analysed by Page and Getz (1997) ‘‘To some individual rural tourism businesses, like restaurants and retailing high volume accessibility is essential.’’ At the interface of transport and tourism, Hall and Page (1999), Kwan andWeber (2008) identify four fields to be studied: the link between source market and host destination, mobility provision and access within the destination, mobility provision and access within an area with a relevant tourist attraction, and the advancement of journeys along a recreation route itself also representing a tourism experience. One of the methodologically most complicated issues of studying the connection between transport and tourism is how to separate tourist flows from transport capacities. There are several branches of transport that are used by residents by choice, therefore, it is rather hard to have roles divided.


From Tourism and accessibility: An integrated approach.