Website for boycotting oligarchs gains traction in Hungary
It may be just one of many fashionable hotels in the Hungarian capital, but for anti-corruption activist Attila Juhasz, the Alice Hotel symbolises the capture of the tourism industry by an elite that has enriched itself under Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
"One of the owners is a commercial partner of (Orban's son-in-law) Istvan Tiborcz," Juhasz, a bearded 30-year-old in a yellow parka coat, told AFP.
To increase awareness Juhasz's corruption watchdog "K-Monitor" created a tourist guide with a difference, an interactive map nerhotel.hu that lists addresses to avoid in Budapest.
It includes the Alice Hotel, housed in a neo-renaissance building on Budapest's prestigious Andrassy boulevard, lined with 19th century palaces.
According to Juhasz the map lets people check if their tourist spending is flowing to "politically exposed figures".
In three years more than 400 addresses have been added to the map, most located in parts of the historic centre of Budapest that form a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Between 3,000 and 3,500 unique visitors view the map every month.
"People constantly ask us to check new addresses," said Juhasz, adding that an English version is on the way.
The Alice Hotel and two other popular addresses, Cafe Opera and Hotel Moments, did not reply to requests for comment by AFP.
- 'Wealth accumulation' -
Since Orban returned to power 12 years ago in this EU member nation of 10 million people, Brussels and several NGOs have often alleged corruption among circles close to the government.
Worried by the wastage of EU funds, the bloc has so far refused to unlock some 7.5 billion euros for Hungary scheduled for the coming years. Budapest has started to implement a range of anti-corruption measures to get
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