DATOURWAY Transnational Strategy for the Territorial Development of the Danube Area, with special regard to Tourism SYNTHESIS February, 2011. 1 CONTENT I. Macro-regional relations ..................................................................................................................... 3 I.1. Position of the DATOURWAY area ................................................................................................ 3 I.2. Spatial structure, settlement system ............................................................................................ 5 I.3. Dominant characteristic features of the urban network of the DATOURWAY region ................ 12 I.4. Danube related development concepts of the partner states .................................................... 14 II. Synthesis of the national analyses ................................................................................................... 18 II.1. National tourist development concepts, programs ................................................................... 18 II.2. Vision, expectations from the DATOURWAY project ................................................................. 22 II.3. Social resources .......................................................................................................................... 25 II.4. Natural endowments, state of the environment ....................................................................... 30 II.5. Economic characteristics, with special regard to tourism .......................................................... 41 II.6. Infrastructure ............................................................................................................................. 45 III. Potentials, initiatives and actual tourist uses in the DATOURWAY area ...................................... 54 IV. Conflict areas ................................................................................................................................... 66 IV.1. Conflicts between tourism and the state of the environment ................................................. 66 IV.2. Inadequacies in the relations between tourism and human resources ................................... 69 IV.3. Infrastructural barriers to tourism development ...................................................................... 70 V. Basic elements for the joint tourism strategy in the DATOURWAY area ....................................... 72 V.1. SWOT .......................................................................................................................................... 72 2 I. Macro-regional relations I.1. Position of the DATOURWAY area The DATOURWAY region is a corridor along the middle and lower sections of the Danube, in Central and Southern Europe, in the south-east part of the European Union, in the territory of six countries. The area of planning is constituted by the counties along the section of the Danube entering at the Devin Gate (“ where the murky foams of the Morava pour into the Danube” – Fényes Elek) and ending at the Black Sea river delta (NUTS 3). The part of the region starting at Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, follows the W – E course of the river. The part located north of the border river is Žitny ostrov, the plane cuddling up to the hillsides of the North-West Carpathians (the most important agricultural area of Slovakia); south of it is Szigetköz; in the west, Kisalföld joins the Sub-Alps; in the south and east, the mountains of Dunántúli-középhegység. After the large bend the Danube takes a north-south direction, the river continues along the Great Hungarian Plain area to the east, and on the western side it is accompanied by a hilly country, then the Mecsek Hills. The plains in Hungary are Mezőföld and Kiskunság, then the Bačka loess table, belonging predominantly to the Serbian Vojvodina; this constitutes. The Danube–Drava region is the landscape-forming element of the western part of the triple Hungarian–Croatian–Serbian border. On the east side - on the Bačka, then the Banat area - the Danube again gradually takes a westerly–easterly course (with north – south bends). Iron Gate, made by four 3 interconnected passes, constitutes a major part of the natural border between Serbia and Romania (the Serbian and Romanian section of the Lower Danube). In the territory of Romania, at the foot of the southern Carpathians the Danube continues again in a westerly– easterly direction, through a wide valley. The Danube, which is here the border river between Romania and Bulgaria, then flows to the north, as far as the extensive delta region ending at the Black Sea, also stretching over to the territory of the Ukraine. The region is an interwoven series of various landscapes, with special, high-value nature areas, starting from Szigetköz, and the steep hilly country of the Danube bend, through the Kiskunság sand ridge, the Trans-Danubian hilly country and the spurs of Mecsek, to the Danube-Drava region, through the Iron Gate, through the valley of the Lower Danube surrounded by irregular water courses, waterfalls and cliffs, to the delta area. Hungarian Danube section 4 I.2. Spatial structure, settlement system The River Danube, the dominant element of the spatial structure, establishes a macro- regional connection of the affected territories of the six countries. In spite of this, it plays the role of a divider rather than a connector in the life of the regions of the area. Along the common section of Slovakia and Hungary, the Danube is a border river, constituting the main axe of the area of Hungary; but outside the metropolitan region of the capital, in all the relevant NUTS2 and NUTS3 regions, the Danube is the border of the regions and the counties; due to the limitations of contact (the lack of bridges) territorial development is not oriented in the direction of the Danube. The spatial structural role of the Danube is different in Serbia - it links significant cities: Belgrade, Novi Sad, and Smederevo; then, at the Lower Danube segment, from the narrow cross-section of the connection, the Iron Gate became the focal point of energy production and navigability starting in 1972. From then on, the Danube has been a border river between the countries, across which at present only one single bridge establishes a connection between two countries, Bulgaria and Romania. This contradictory, connecting and at the same time separating- role of the Danube greatly influences the spatial structure of the area. Bratislava The spatial structure and settlement system of the two capitals, Bratislava and Budapest, with their urbanised zone, dominating this section of the Upper Danube, show several similarities. The dominance of the two big cities, their regional and urban development 5 effect, is enforced on both sides. Together with the strengthening of the sub-centres of the urbanised zone, the emergence of conurbations and its effect of mobilising the extensive area are well visible. The directions of the relationships are different. The area of Bratislava, and the spatial structure of Slovakia , stretches towards the west–north-west, though the effects of southern expansion - crossing the country border, running as far as Mosonmagyaróvár - are already making headway. The relationships within the country, with an eastern orientation (towards Nitra, Nové Zámky) are looser. In the Hungarian territory the extensive agglomeration of the capital also has outstanding significance and its effect of mobilising its wider environment, the central area of the country (extending from Székesfehérvár through Esztergom, Vác, Hatvan and Kecskemét) is similar, or even greater. At the same time, the north-western part of the country, with Sopron and Győr as its centre, is the other active, developing area, with connections stretching across the country borders as well. In this Bratislava–Budapest region the Danube, in spite of all the political conflicts, is an important participant of cross-border connections. The material manifestation of intensive relationships is the Slovak construction of flats in Rajka, the connections of border cities Komárom–Komárno, the organised transportation of the labour force in Tatabánya, and the bridge between Esztergom–Párkány, reconstructed in 2001. Esztergom and the Mária Valéria bridge The spatial relationships of the Budapest agglomeration are not homogeneous either. The connections and the mobilising effects are strong in the western, north-western, northern 6 and north-eastern directions and somewhat milder towards the south - both in the Great Plain and on the Trans-Danubian side; this latter is related to the southern expressway connection, missing until the most recent times, and the undependable railway connections. This is also the reason for the development of the region along the Danube, south of Budapest, being focussed on the larger cities and their regions at a distance of some 40-60 km from the river (Székesfehérvár and Pécs in the Trans-Danubia, Kecskemét on the Great Plain). The area between the river and the urban concentrations comprises agricultural areas and territories of nature protection, with larger and mostly smaller towns along the Danube. The connection between the two sides of the river is served by three bridges without, however, appropriate railway and express-way connections. On the other side of the southern border of Hungary the geographical unit of the Baranya hilly country continues on the Trans-Danubian side, in the area of Croatia (Osijek-Baranya