Dr. László Puczkó
Managing Director – Xellum Ltd
László graduated in 1993 as an economist specialized in tourism and logistics at Budapest University of Economics. Then, led by his interest in culture and arts, he completed a dance teaching course at the Hungarian Institute of Culture and Arts (1995), and also graduated from the Art & Design Management department of the Hungarian University of Applied Arts (1996). Following his friends’ idea he also started his PhD studies in 1993 which he successfully completed in 2000. He has become a Certified Management Consultant (CMC) in 2003. Since 2006 he has been the president of the Association of Tourism Consultants, and founded The Tourism Observatory for Health, Wellness and Spa (2012). From 2007 to 2010 he was the member of the board of directors at the Travel and Tourism Research Association Europe Chapter.
In the past 20 years, László has tried himself at many, not necessarily related, but very interesting fields: he has worked in a travel agency, managed professional consultancy, choreographed dance performances, but also delivered a newspaper. He has spent the longest time in education and consultancy. He teaches at various institutes of higher education both abroad (e.g. Finland, Estonia) and in Hungary (presently Head of the Tourism and Catering Institute at the Budapest College of Business, Communication and Arts, but he also used to be a colleague at the Corvinus University of Budapest, Kodolányi János College and Heller Farkas College).
He is the (co-)author of numerous specialised books (e.g.: Health and Wellness Tourism, Impacts of Tourism (in English), Az attrakciótól az élményig (From attractions to experiences), Turizmus történelmi városokban (Tourism in Historic Cities) (in Hungarian)) and articles in professional journals.
He has begun his professional tourism and travel consultancy career, while he was still at school, as a colleague at the Tourism Research Centre of Budapest University of Economic Sciences, where he worked until 2001. Then he joined the Travel, Leisure and Tourism Team of KPMG, where he had the chance to experience how it is to work at a multinational company and in its international milieu.
In 2004, he decided that an ideal match to his lifestyle would be a smaller and more personal company, and so he co-founded (and named) Xellum Ltd. Since past years, the professional partners provided him the opportunity to benefit from his knowledge and broaden his experiences in his beloved fields: apart from tourism, in the world of museums, experience mapping and design and spas.
He participated in more than a hundred projects in various fields: research, strategic and tactic planning, product development, experience mapping and design, effect-analysis and marketing in health-, wellness- and spa-tourism, transport, heritage and cultural tourism, eco-tourism and some specialised or thematic touristic products.
László is an internationally known and acknowledged expert, he lectures at various international professional and academic conferences and congresses, and he is a member of the Global Speakers’ Network.