INVESTIGATIONS ON THE TOURISM FUNCTION CHANGE OF RURAL SETTLEMENTS WITH BROWN FIELDS

Abstract

Brownfields have appeared in a growing extent over the last decades in Hungary, as well as in the international
scene. We believe that due to the development possibilities, the diversified environmental, social and economic aspects,
it is always relevant to deal with these areas.
Out of the renewal possibilities we definitely have to mention the function change of a certain region which can even
be the prime mover of the revitalisation processes. Tourism, due to its regional development effect, can endow the
areas with new functions by creating new, recreational or tourism zones. Among the numerous impacts of the tourism
function changes of the brown fields maybe the most important is that a successful revitalisation program can trace
back the given area to the functioning texture of the settlement. These revitalisation processes can promote the creation
of a more reasonable spatial management advancing the reorganisation of the spatial structure.
Those Hungarian towns are in the focus of this research where tourism, recreation was the main direction of the
development. During our investigations we selected the rural towns with brownfields then we separated those where
the tourism developments are dominant. An important result of the study is the comparison of the revitalization
projects – grouped by the categories of tourism supply –, and the surveying of their efficiency. Moreover, we have
revealed the relationship between the geographical location, the level of social-economical-touristic development and
the efficiency of the projects in these towns.