Development Directions and Opportunities of Market Places in the Balaton Region Especially Concerning Local Producers’ Markets

Nowadays, the change of travel and consumption habits of tourists brings a destination into prominence. The characteristic products of the destinations with complex tourism supply appear as univocal association of ideas for the potential tourists. In the analysed Balaton region, besides the accentuated waterside tourism, the definite development of the gastronomy trends can be seen in the certain supply channels. The aim of our research was to determine the development opportunities of the market places and their place in the consumers’ preferences, promising interesting results in relation to the consumer standards of the Hungarian and international demand. We detected three major directions in our researches: the linking of the place with a product, the market as a programme and rural development-gastronomy directions. The present study aims to reveal the rural development direction: the market place forms a space to the sales of the quality, locally produced foodstuff motivating more and more people to create a more near-natural lifestyle.