Overlooking the waterfront, the whale-shaped Bálna Budapest complex has just been embellished with a new visitor centre to offer trips around the city. Filled with travel tips for sightseers, the new Budapestinfo Point provides tours by bus or boat, even guided city walks. The Budapest Card is also available here, offering free public transport and complimentary or discounted admission to attractions, including museums and baths.

With its array of gastronomic outlets facing the Danube, Bálna Budapest on the Pest riverfront attracts guests on any given day for convivial lounging. This contemporary construction also focuses on daytime visitors, with its scattering of souvenir shops and temporary exhibitions. Now, a new tourist information office has been added to this mix to provide better services to visitors in the city.

The Budapestinfo Point is the seventh of its kind run by the Budapest Festival and Tourism Center (BFTK), the official organisation that oversees these outlets. It also serves as a sales office for the Budapest Card, offering free and discounted services for tourists for 24, 48 and 72 hours, as well as for four or five days.

Expanding the network of Budapest’s tourist-information points comes in the wake of a boom in incoming travellers to the Hungarian capital. Official figures show that a record ten million hotel stays were registered here over the course of 2017. Subsequently, Budapest Airport also logged a record-breaking number of passengers in the past year.

In 2018, Budapest is also the host city of World Tourism Day, observed annually on September 27th. While most of the events run only in Hungarian and require advanced registration, the programme includes discounted admission to the Veli Bej Baths, the Time Trap escape room and English-language guided tours by bike with the Cityrama company. A list of events is available here (in Hungarian only).

Established by the United Nations World Tourism Organization in 1980, World Tourism Day is observed in cities around the world as local offices set up special events to demonstrate important cultural attractions for visitors. This celebration always revolves around a main message, this year’s being Tourism and the Digital Transformation.