PEOPLE POWERED TOURISM PILOT STORY  |  SZEGED HUNGARY

Beyond the Popular Sights: Szeged Through Local Eyes

How Szeged is bringing New Tourism to life through resident voices, local businesses and alternative ways of experiencing the city

Szeged makes a grand first impression: the Votive Church rises above Dóm Square, eclectic and Art Nouveau buildings shape the streetscape, and Kárász Street draws visitors into its lively centre.

But take a quieter turn. Along the riverbanks, in neighbourhood cafés and creative workshops, another Szeged comes to light: a city of everyday places, local makers and stories shared across generations. These are the details guidebooks often pass by. This is also where the city's People Powered Tourism pilot begins – with a broader vision for tourism that reconnects Szeged with the people, places and experiences that give it character.

Hidden potentials of the City of Sunshine

For a long time, the story of Szeged told to visitors followed much the same path. Meanwhile, riverside hideaways, quieter neighbourhoods, small businesses and creative communities remained outside the usual itinerary. The challenge was not a lack of places or ideas, but a lack of connections between them – and only few opportunities for residents to influence how their city is presented.

Bringing New Tourism into local practice

At its core, the Szeged pilot is about making the New Tourism concept part of local practice. It brings residents, tourism providers, cultural actors, guides, hotels and small businesses into the same conversation. Their shared task is to uncover overlooked possibilities, connect offers that have long remained separate and create experiences in which the city is shaped as much by those who live here as by those who come to visit.

The aim is not simply to add another attraction. It is to change the way Szeged is discovered: to move beyond a fixed list of landmarks, make local knowledge visible and allow the benefits of tourism to reach more people and more parts of the city.

For one month, the Nappali tested how a temporary city-centre point and creative activities could open a window onto Szeged's neighbourhoods. Photos: Municipality of Szeged.

The Nappali as a temporary shop window

The igloo-shaped Nappali (Living Room) on Klauzál Square is one visible point within this wider programme. During its current one-month test period, it serves as a temporary community living room and a shop window for the cultural values of Szeged's distinctive neighbourhoods. Its surface carries references to Tápé, Dorozsma, Felsőváros and Alsóváros, while the activities around it invite people to encounter local crafts and traditions in the heart of the city.

Further appearances of the Nappali at different locations in Szeged are planned, but this first one-month installation is deliberately experimental. It tests whether a transparent, welcoming visitor point can become a gateway from the busy centre towards the cultural heritage and communities beyond the best-known streets.

Listening before planning

The process began by listening. Local tourism providers and other stakeholders came together to share their knowledge, identify overlooked treasures and discover new possibilities for cooperation. During a series of preparatory workshops, tourism providers, cultural organisations, guides, hotels, creative communities and small businesses mapped existing offers and discussed what Szeged was still missing as a visitor destination. The sessions helped them connect previously separate ideas and identify opportunities that could grow into shared visitor experiences. Then came the residents' perspective: the quiet courtyards, riverside places, familiar meeting points and small experiences they value, but visitors often miss.

Szerintem Szeged

The Szerintem Szeged campaign asks a simple but powerful question: what would you recommend to someone who wants to know the city as a local? Through online and face-to-face engagement, residents shared places they love, experiences they treasure and ideas about what Szeged could offer to people of different ages, interests and rhythms of life.

“Dragon boating on the River Tisza is also well worth trying. There’s an instructor to guide the team, so you don’t have to figure things out on your own, and paddling together has its own special atmosphere. I think seeing Szeged from the water is a completely different experience from looking at the river from the riverbank.”
Levente, 30 |  Szerintem Szeged participant

A day of New Tourism tested by guests

On 12 October 2026, People Powered Tourism partners from Timișoara Destination Management Organisation, Sombor City Hall and BURST experienced this approach during a peer review visit. The day began downtown at the Szeged Tourism Office with an introduction to the pilot, followed by a hands-on Fórum Fabrika craft workshop in the Nappali, located on a busy central square. From there, the group travelled by bicycle to FOKA Ökokikötő in Felsőváros, an outer neighbourhood, and continued by boat towards the Tisza–Maros confluence and Boszorkánysziget with the Élmény Séta team to experience the city from a different perspective.

By bicycle and boat, the peer review route connected the city centre with Szeged's riverside landscape. Photos: Municipality of Szeged.

The programme then returned to the inner city with a lunch at Novotel Szeged that created space for learning about large providers’ contribution to visitor economy. At the end of the walk, the pilot also brought attention to small businesses such as Tündérkert cake shop and Kék Elefánt café – places where the visitor experience is shaped through atmosphere, personal contact and local recommendation. Along the way, local guides, craftspeople and small businesses opened a window into their world, sharing not only what makes Szeged special, but also their hopes for its future.

Two stops on the Hidden Treasures walk: Tündérkert cake shop and Kék Elefánt café. Photos: Municipality of Szeged.

Weaving the local threads together

These individual voices are becoming part of a larger visitor story. More than 150 residents have already contributed recommendations to Szeged’s unconventional “guidebook”, as well as 170 ideas were raised by local stakeholders. Guides, creative communities, tourism providers, hotels and small businesses are also developing packages that can feed into Szeged's future New Tourism Strategy.

This is what makes the initiative people-powered: local residents and businesses are not only an audience for tourism development. Their experiences help decide which places deserve attention, which stories are shared and how visitors are invited to move through the city.

A city where every resident can be both host and guest

The ambition is a city where locals can rediscover their own home with fresh eyes and visitors can feel welcome and connected, even if only for a little while. This is what New Tourism means in Szeged: sharing experiences, finding the extraordinary in familiar places and giving more people a chance to shape the city's story.

And perhaps this is where the next chapter begins. From the very beginning, the ambition has reached far beyond the life of a project: a city where people feel encouraged to speak up, share what matters to them and know that someone is listening. Once people discover that their voices can make a difference, the conversation does not end when a project comes to a close. It carries on in everyday encounters, in new ideas and unexpected connections, gradually becoming part of the city’s life – and helping its people shape the future they want to be part of.

Beyond the popular sights, Szeged is a city best understood through local eyes.

   Peer review team in the Szeged National Theatre, Photo: Szeged és Térsége Turisztikai NKft.