Tourists in Budapest in front of a restaurant
The summer is here and tourists flood Budapest. Now that
Hungary has finally joined the European Union, visitors arrive in
great numbers to witness the last moments of a rapidly transforming
society. There are signs that reveal that in a few years Hungary
will catch up with globalization (or vice versa) and become
just another country filled with gas stations, fast food "restaurants"
and supermarket chains.
Actually, in a way it already has. The gas stations, food joints and
shopping plazas are not only omnipresent, they are also THE places where
the majority of the locals go. But tourists refuse to see that side
of the country, they are searching for the remains of the "real" or "authentic"
culture. So they hang around in specific areas in downtown Budapest where only
two kinds of people can be seen: tourists and people supplying tourists with
whatever those envision to be the authentic Hungarian culture.
Almost every stand on the street in these areas sells large two-foot color pencils.
Foreigners buy them by the dozen and take home as a souvenir. After all, this is
not something you would find at home. The fact is, however, this is not something
most Hungarians would ever see in their lives. I asked one of the sellers about them
and he said that these are imported from Transylvania (i.e. Romania) especially for
tourists. Why? Because they want them.
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Of course, oversized pencils are just one example, however weird they are.
Other such items include paprika, that is, dried chili strung together. I believe
this paprika comes from certain local towns (e.g. Szeged and Kalocsa) but definitely
are not representative of what the majority of the population eats at home. It does
look pretty though. Still, if you pay attention to the people buying these ornamental
strings of paprika, you will see that they are exclusively foreigners with cameras and
guidebooks. And an air-conditioned bus waiting for them outside the market hall.
And the list could go on and on. Just open your guidebook and read about traditional
things in Hungary. Or better yet, watch any American movie that involves Hungary
and you will see a wide array of stereotypical attributes. Tourists come to
Hungary in pursuit of these stereotypes and the Hungarians gradually develop
them to suit the needs of the market. So eventually the foreigners get what
they wanted to.
Although this seems like a negative view of the tourist industry in general,
the fact is that this false image of the country and its culture is the
same thing that attracts visitors in the first place. Without the romanticed
and exoticized images of the Eastern Block, including spies, prisons, gloomy
streets, empress Sisi, etc. Hungary would have a lot less appeal. From this
point of view, we should not only be grateful for the existence of such
stereotypes but should actively promote them. (This, of course, makes one
realize that the existing ones were also created as a result of some
marketing campaign.)
Naturally, the same phenomenon exists in other countries with other cultures.
You have to make culture romantically attractive in order to make people
interested in it. Look at the public sympathy with Tibet, whereas there are
hundreds, if not thousands, of tribes and ethnicities in Siberia nobody
knows of, not to speak of donating money for saving their culture. In short,
you have to present things the right way in order to sell them.
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