The aim of the research is to reveal the characteristics of one of Hungary's most important touristic destination, the Lake Balaton Resort Area, with special respect to what sort of influence on local businesses foreign-owned commercial supermarket chains have. The research involves mapping transformed businesses, as well as searching for the answer to how the tendency of the periods of high season and the changing of the visitors' segments affect catering industry. In addition to this, the study draws a comparison between the motivation of setting up businesses and the year of their launch.
In the Lake Balaton Resort Area, which serves as the locality of the particular research, it can be observed that the importance of the service industry is on the increase, which ensures the possibility of an alternative source of income to the local inhabitants. In the first place, it directly affects the labour force, driven out of the primary sector jobs, who are on the verge of having the service industry as the only chance to get a job. The study is aimed at commercial concentration and the changing of the catering industry, besides the breakdown of the region's businesses into separate branches. The main question of the examination is whether the economic priority of tourism may be sufficient enough in the future to kick-start the development of this specific rural region, or further diversification of branches should be required in the interest of development.
While mapping the characteristics of the layers of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, we have been looking for the answer to how economic-sociological processes that are present in the Lake Balaton Resort Area influence their successfulness.
The development of tourist destinations, the improvement of living standards and the enhancement of the Balaton identity can be supported by the self-employment and creating jobs. To achieve that, it is inevitable for the local inhabitants to pool their interests and co-operate.