Evaluating the role of European Union preaccession instruments in the competitive tourism development of the latest accession countries: the Hungarian experience

The aim of this paper is to evaluate critically the distinctive contribution of the European Union (EU) pre-accession instruments to the competitive tourism development of the recently joined, new members in the preparatory phase of accession by the case of Hungary. Most attention in evaluating EU support schemes has been paid to the impact of various Structural Funds programmes on the tourism sector of designated areas or communities, whereas the pre-accession instruments have not been much considered in the literature. The present chapter attempts to assort and analyse the completed regional and local tourism development projects realized under two preaccession instruments, namely, the PHARE and the SAPARD in order to explore the role, proportion and eventually, competitive potential tourism represented in the overall Hungarian accession preparation. As key context for this illustration the comparative case of two PHARE Pilot Projects is highlighted (PHARE HU9606 South Transdanubia and South Great Plain regions) as evidences of functional interaction between regional tourism development and devolution of the state decision-making mechanisms. The characteristics discerned in the example of Hungary revealed the pattern of tourism investment allocations, which allowed us to set this issue in a broader context in order to serve practical, as well as incremental results for further rounds of enlargement. The findings suggest that actionable local and regional tourism development programmes of pre-accession funding conduce to the construction of EU-conform regional institutional system and territorial division in compliance with the principle of subsidiarity.