Investigating sustainable settlement development in the Lake Velence area

The focus of the present study is the sustainability of the settlements in the Lake Velence area, especially Velence and Gardony, which are at the center of pressure by tourism in the area. At the beginning of the study, immediately after the introduction of the concepts of sustainability and tourism destination management and the characterization of Lake Velence and its tourism, a comparative assessment of the Integrated Settlement Development Strategies of the cities of Velence and Gárdony is presented. Gárdony’s strategy focuses on the sustainability of the economy and the urban and natural environment, while Velence has a stronger social aspect. The study determined the strengths and weaknesses, which are in line with the results of the indicator-based research presented in the second part of the study that aimed to establish the sustainability ranking of the region. We considered the direction and extent of changes between 2010 and 2018 and compared it with the absolute data series for 2018. Velence and Gárdony are in the middle category in the sustainability rankings, while Velence is among the best in the latter.

Keywords: destination management, local sustainability, settlement development, sustainability ranking