Bence Csapody, Katalin Ásványi, Melinda Jászberényi, Eylül Balaban (p)

László Kökény

Recent pandemic has shaken consumer’s confidence in multinational value chains, which may further increase the interest in local products in the short to medium term. As Covid-19 has led consumers to buy local ingredients, the supply of local food to restaurants has also become an important factor in sustainability practices. Due to the crisis, restaurants have had to face several challenges, operational flexibility of the establishments has become an essential aspect – one of the most important means of the sector's survival. The period of post-crisis recovery often results in opening of new directions in management practices, including hospitality management, too. Observing previous patterns, we can say that such a new direction could be the promotion of sustainable operating models and, as part of the slow philosophy, the spread of local products in gastronomy. Green practices and sustainable food (including food from local sources) are essential elements for consumers, according to the literature, and providing green cuisine to health-conscious people boosts restaurants' sustainable image. Local products can operate as an attraction in the context of tourism, and their impact can be interpreted both directly and indirectly, on the one hand bolstering the local economy and, on the other hand, motivating local tourism service providers to innovate. Hence, with the practical and theoretical aim, several interviews with Hungarian restaurant managers, producers and representatives of professional bodies have been carried out in terms of local, seasonal and sustainable ingredients’ criteria. In the course of our present research, we are about to explore the greatest opportunities and challenges of short supply chains and green restaurant concepts. Our aim is to detect problems, thus helping hospitality professionals and producers in order to reach a more sustainable hospitality ecosystem while adapting the slow philosophy.
Keywords: short supply chains, local products, small producers, sustainable restaurants, sustainability, slow philosophy

Thao Hoang (p)

Eylul Balaban

Expanding international awareness and improving global integration through tourist activities is one of the positive driving forces which is increasing the number of students going abroad every year. Most international students take advantage of every holiday whilst studying and living overseas, especially if that country is located on another continent, to explore the local culture, and enjoy the distinctive culinary culture. Consequently, this not only boosts the local tourism economy but also contributes to the national economy. Strongly, study-abroad programs create more options for local entrepreneurs, economic benefits for small enterprises, and job opportunities for residents. To date, there have been a number of studies which identify international students as niche customers who, bring much potential to the local economy.
This study examines the tourism behavior of international students studying in Pécs, one of Hungary's cities attracting a large number of international students each year. The study is produced as the crisis came under control, each citizen being offered free vaccinations, and tourism activities in Hungary and European countries are gradually recovering. The research's main goals are to (1) establish a network of domestic and international destinations in order to identify destinations that attract international students in the post-Covid-19 era; (2) synthesize international students' evaluations of night-life tourism activities in the city of Pécs; (3) determine international students' spending levels on tourism activities; and, finally, (4) to propose some orientations for diversifying tourism activities in Pécs for the new normal period.
To have the desired results, an online poll of international students studying at the University of Pécs is being undertaken. Gephi 9.2 software (Network analysis) is also be involved to build a destination network of options. Fundamentally, the initial study generates data on international students' travel behavior, including the determinants of destinations, the ability to decide domestic and international routes during the tourism recovery time, the level of spending on tourism activities, especially the reviews and recommendations on night-life products and services in Pécs. The study in part helps tourism managers in Pécs to understand the characteristics of a niche traveler, but also gives the potential for the development of the local tourism economy – to elaborate plans for product diversification, strengthen tourism activities and enhance the attractiveness of the destination image of Pécs.

Istvan Bottyán (p)

Thao Hoang

The aim of this study is to comprehensively present the gastronomic festivals of Europe, Asia, America and Hungary, their spatial distribution, location within the continent, region and country. It seeks to establish a link between gastronomic festivals and the economic development and competitiveness of a given country, and to justify the link between cultural diversity and gastronomic festivals. It aims to provide an overview of the characteristics of the festival in each geographical region, to explore the similarities of the entire market, and to present local or continental characteristics. It aims to explain the number of festivals worldwide, the attitudes and motivations of visitors. In an international context, it is also looking for an example of the so-called festival evolution, their impact on the national or regional food industry. The aim is also to show the impact of COVID-19 on gastronomy and gastro-festivals which is related to tourism as a special tourism product.

Agota Pfening (p), Melinda Jászberényi

Istvan Bottyán

Until the year 2020, it seemed travel had become, almost undoubtedly, an inseparable part of our life. The COVID-19 pandemic raised serious doubts about this development and posed several questions about how we value mobility. As a consequence, severe devaluation of mobility started on international and local levels by closing down national borders, pausing air passenger travel, introducing local lockdowns and standardizing the institution of ‘work from home’ (Cresswell 2020). Over time, despite the increasing vaccination, companies established novel work arrangements with a focus on social distance utilizing technology-based tools to work remotely. Even though the notion of ‘remote work’ may not mean work from ‘everywhere and anywhere’, COVID-19 is still seen as a driver of stimulated interest in experiencing a new digitally enabled nomadic lifestyle (De Almeida et al., 2021).

The spread of the ‘digital nomad’ concept has started long before the COVID-19 pandemic and appeared from 2008 in the public media, Google Search volumes rapidly increased on this term since April 2012. While as a research category, digital nomads have appeared in academic publications during the last decade with straightforward upward trends only from 2017, 5 years later, based on the number of published titles, abstracts and keywords in Scopus Search. The theoretical framing of the term ‘digital nomadism’ is still emerging, academic literature approaches this trend from various angles: a new way of work life, a form of tourism or mobility, an economic model, a whole lifestyle, or even a cultural phenomenon. There are five key characteristics of digital nomad lifestyle that are common in previous studies: 1) location independent and 2) technologically-enabled behavior 3) intertwining leisure, work and travel activities that tends to be 4) dependent on employment type and 5) built for purpose.

In the Hungarian academic literature, the subject of ‘digital nomadism’ is a relatively weakly researched area yet, covered mainly by MSc thesis discussions. However, deeper research is needed on the scope to better understand how digital nomadism triggered in Hungary, and Central Eastern Europe from both inbound and outbound perspectives. To fill this research gap, this study aims at understanding in-depth the digital nomads’ travel patterns into and from Central Eastern Europe, with particular focus on Hungary, as well as the drivers in the choice of digital nomad destinations.

László Kökény (p)

Agota Pfening

Strict restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic forced some tourist services to new, alternative programs. In our research, we examined what effects on consumers can be observed for a new type of service. This service was called Flight to nowhere, which meant air travel within the borders of Hungary. It was the first flight in Europe in October of 2020. This service gave people the illusion that they had actually travelled somewhere during the COVID-19 pandemic closures. In our research, we conducted an analysis of the experiences of the participants during consumption by asking the questionnaires of the 130 people who participated in the program, and how they evaluated the performance of the service and whether they would repurchase another similar program. We also examined the junctions of mental problems related to the confinement caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We tested our results with a CB-SEM model. The results show that respondents typically experienced esthetic and escapist experiences. The degree of experience increased the higher intention to repurchase. In the case of negative emotions, which measured the sense of continuity of life, living escapist-type experiences could alleviate the disadvantages caused by confinement to a small extent. The effect of esthetic experience on repurchase intention was significantly moderated in a negative direction by negative affect. This means that the more traumatic the experience of confinement, the more the positive effect of the esthetic experience on repurchase was reduced. The research helps to understand what the experience of a new, illusionary tourism service is and how the experience of all this is related to the personal effects of the COVID-19 pandemic-induced confinement.