Tourism in Matyóföld one hundred years ago and today

Abstract

The location of the research focusing on Matyó folk art was the two settlements of Matyóföld,
Mezőkövesd and Tard, where semi-structured professional interviews with the competent specialists of
the settlements were conducted in the field of tourism in September 2021. Initially, during the literature
analysis, it emerged to what Matyóföld owed its popularity one hundred years ago. The interviews
looked for the extent to which Matyó folk art contributes to the increase in the number of visitors,
to the marketing activities of the region, as well as whether all this promotes the value-preserving
activity of the Matyó folk art – which has been declared as an Intangible Cultural Heritage and also as a
Hungaricum –, its presentation and promotion. The discovery of Matyó folk art dates from the matyó’s
wedding presentation in Budapest, as this made Mezőkövesd’s rich embroidery and clothing culture
known nationally. To this day, the professional and civic organizations operating in Matyóföld strive to
preserve and pass on Matyó folk art, in the same way as their predecessors did one hundred years ago.
At the same time, despite the continuous increase in the total number of visitors, there has been no
increase in the number of visitors to the museums in the last 15 years. Based on this, we can conclude
that receiving the title of the Intangible Cultural Heritage did not increase tourism in the region.