…Formula 1- Budapest – Internet...

It’s the same each year: in the week of the Formula 1 race all shop, restaurant, hotel and night club owners are overexcited. Everyone has great expectations towards the weekend, what will the season turn out to be like this year? Will it be better than last year or maybe even worse than that? Was it all so slow only for me or did others have it rough as well? - that’s what many people ask themselves.

Budapest isn’t really a centre for conferences, business tourism hasn’t exactly been peaking since the credit crunch started, so there’s more unease than usual. Many outlets we asked are pretty pessimistic about the weekend, but on the basis of the opinions of  economy experts and of the leaders of the domestic hotel industry, Budapestbrothels.com is optimistic nevertheless, expecting a 30-40% growth on previous years based on own experience as well. What we’re most interested in are the changes palpable in Budapest nightlife, so I think our main task can be to examine the reasons that should cause the positive change we expect to occur in this area.

In the year of the Formula 1 you always have to take into account the current happenings of the race, i.e. how many people will be mobilised by the championship in the world in that given year. Many times, compared to the changes to have occurred in the host country, this depends on factors that are not in the hands of the host - for example the weather -, so when preparing a summary at the end, this also has to be taken into account. This year sees the return of seven time champion Michael Schumacher and since the championship is completely open, the factor mentioned above will also contribute to a change towards the positive. Weather, also mentioned before, is another important factor, but meteorologists tell us we don’t have to expect any problems with that.

Besides the above - and this is what we think is important - we would like to stress the changes occurred recently in Budapest nightlife. This past period generated a really strong self-cleansing procedure, which is still going ahead with full force and which has brought about changes that must have their results soon. This mechanism was speeded up by the financial crisis, which acted as a catalyst, but as the old saying goes, “every cloud has a silver lining”.

Well, this applies to this situation in two ways.

Firstly, businesses that weren’t operating in accordance with the law and the rules went down very quickly and only those survived who provide reliable and high quality services. Some agonising businesses still try to live off frauds against tourists, but their days are clearly numbered. The only question is whether they will close down or will be closed down by the police or the municipality this year or will they only be put out of their misery next year.

An important thing to examine is what it was that set off this self-sustaining process. In a country where corruption has such history and roots as in Hungary, it is almost impossible to carry out an anti-corruption program. You can start one, but since everyone’s infected from public administration to politics to the press, any organisation fighting corruption will unavoidably fail eventually. It was going to be no different this time around either, but an invention of the new millennium got in the way. All it took to start the changes was a medium that is totally free, not controllable by anyone, but accessible by everyone, the internet.

It is safe to say that thanks to the internet, Budapest nightlife today is not the same as it was a year ago. Many things have changed and we are glad to say it was all positive. All the forums, blogs and independent websites have worked together as concentrated pesticide against the pests that are businesses that steal from and trick people. If anyone tries to do any of that, the following day it will be there on the internet to be read by thousands of people. And it works both ways. Clubs that stood up for the interests of their guests seem to have got wings recently. Many instances of positive feedback can also be found on the web, therefore it pays to play fair.

This phenomenon can be viewed as a guarantee as well. Who haven’t let down the visitors writing the posts are guaranteed to satisfy the other readers as well. Whoever earns this kind of trust will receive free advertising of a kind that can’t be achieved with expensive campaigns. But if you abuse the trust of your customers and negative news start circulating about your business, you can just as well close down, because you’ll sooner or later go bankrupt anyway.

Therefore the internet will have a great effect on the Formula 1 season this year too. Hardly anyone leaves their country before coming to Budapest without getting informed about the city, its services and other general things. Many people share the experiences had here last year or the year before, information is spreading with the speed of light and there is no way to stop it. Just think about Facebook and all other social media and the masses of people concentrated on these sites, speeding up the spreading and sharing of information even more.

To draw the necessary conclusions and evaluate what happened during this past year, if you come to Budapest this year for the Formula 1 race, you’ll see extraordinary changes. Development is apparent, changes are palpable everywhere in the city.

And if so much has happened this year, image what it’ll be like next year…!

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