摘要：The human desire to meet and exchange ideas, the basis of conventions and meetings, is as old as humankind. Yet it was only in the second part of twentieth century that a rapidly developing tourist field came to life: conference tourism. It is seen as a high-yield area of the tourism industry and an important generator of tourism expenditure, foreign exchange earnings, investment and employment. Because of it, a more and more significant number of destinations consider the developing of conference tourism as a highly important field when they elaborate their tourism policy. Lake Balaton, after Budapest, is the second most important tourist destination of Hungary, its “capital” is Siófok. This study – which is based on interviews with hotel and touristic experts and entrepreneurs of Siófok and a questionnaire survey among 200 Siófok citizens – is examining the economic impacts of conference tourism in the town and seeking the answer of how they are considered by those concerned in this business.
