Bid chairman Balázs Fürjes has claimed staging the Olympic and Paralympic Games would provoke a wave of expatriate Hungarians to return to the country ©Budapest 2024

Budapest staging the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2024 would provoke a wave of expatriate Hungarians to return to the country and could provide great benefit to the nation as a whole, bid chairman Balázs Fürjes has claimed.

Fürjes was among representatives from Budapest 2024 who attended the Hungarian American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) Forum, where the viability and benefits of their bid for the Olympics and Paralympics was a key item on the agenda.

Around 250 members of various stakeholders were present.

It is thought there are around five million Hungarians living in other parts of the world.

Fürjes was also keen to highlight a claim made by the Bid Committee that 90 per cent of the Hungarian population would reach at least one Olympic or Paralympic venue within 90 minutes.

The Government Commissioner for Major Budapest Infrastructure Developments was joined by Mayor István Tarlós and Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó at the event in the country's capital.

Szijjártó detailed what the Olympics and Paralympics being held in Budapest would mean for the city and the country as a whole as a strong emphasis has been placed on the bid being a nationwide campaign for the Games.

He spoke about figures from a recent feasibility study, conducted by financial services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, which suggest the Budapest Games could generate as many as 100,000 new jobs and grow GDP by around HUF 3,000 billion (£7.5 billion/$10.8 billion/€9.7 million).

Several representatives from Budapest 2024 were present at the event in the Hungarian capital
Several representatives from Budapest 2024 were present at the event in the Hungarian capital ©Budapest 2024

Tarlós echoed those views and said an Olympics and Paralympics in the capital would help “further establish Budapest as a regional European powerhouse”.

Development work in the city would be “accelerated and enhanced” if they were to emerge victorious in the four-strong race for the 2024 Games, he added.

Following a period of relative uncertainty, Budapest 2024 officially launched their bid with a special ceremony last week at the Citadella, one of the iconic monuments in the city.

Their logo was the centrepiece of the launch, depicting the Danube as well as the Liberty Statue.

Budapest is up against fellow challengers Paris, Los Angeles and Rome for the right to stage the event.

The IOC is due to elect its chosen host at the Session in Peruvian capital Lima in September of next year