Gentle tourism, prime hospitality in Köveskál

"The first weekend after the restrictions were lifted, we had a full house," says Ildikó Döbröntei, founder of the Gasztrovillage, hostess of the Káli Art-Inn Hotel. ‘We don't know whether this high number of the guests is because they not daring to travel abroad or whether it's because of our excellent marketing, but we're confident it's the latter,’ she adds with a laugh.  As she explains, hotels and restaurants are usually full in summer, but they feared that the epidemic would change this trend. In comparison, the summer of 2020 surpassed average summer traffic. The summer between the two waves of epidemics was a very instructive one for the gastronomic village: volume tourism found its way to the village. And solvency does not always go hand in hand with demandingness. People surging around the streets, and the people living there were outraged: they couldn't cross the road because of the traffic, they couldn't walk on the pavement because of the parked cars, they couldn't rest at night because there was a noisy event every day in the rented houses. "These experiences have confirmed the direction we should take. The number of tourists we faced in the summer of 2020 was no longer good for the village. We looked up the local authority a few years ago and started thinking together. We have sat down again to talk to the municipal council and we are determined to do everything we can to strengthen the quality, gentle tourism."

As a result of the consultations, the opening hours in the village have been regulated: if someone starts a business in Köveskál today, they must close it at 10 pm. Catering establishments with a capacity of more than thirty people can only operate on an annual basis, to avoid the risk of fortune soldiers looking for a quick profit and who are looking for two-month opening times. Mass events can only be held five times a year in the village, and these must be announced and coordinated in advance. "We helped the authority to incorporate these rules into the system with the help of a lawyer. By now, everyone has had to set up a parking area for the restaurant, with as many parking spaces as the restaurant can accommodate. This also makes a big difference visually, as guests don't have to park on the main road, on top of each other, and it improves the public feeling, as there is no hustle and bustle, no honking horns, no door slamming. It may not sound good, but it has to be said that quality hospitality must be regulated by prices. We are not cheap. We need to filter the guests. The ‘Káli Art’, (Kali-Art) ‘Mi a Kő’ (What the heck) and ‘Kővirág’ (Stone flower) restaurants have also taken tables out of the restaurant space, so we can accommodate fewer guests. We have made this change partly because of the epidemic, to maintain the one and a half metre distance between tables, but also because we don't want to have crowds flowing through the village or our places."

By sacrificing business interests (more tables, more reservations, more people, more money), the gastronomic village's hosts want to ensure that quality tourism in the long term here. No one can predict whether this high level of domestic tourism will continue once the epidemic is behind us, but the hosts in Köveskál feel that it is a destination their guests can identify with.