Hungary tourism shows recovery at the end of 2023
In December 2023, 1.1 million guests spent 2.7 million tourism nights at tourist accommodation establishments (commercial, private and other accommodation establishments). The number of guests was 16% higher and that of tourism nights 13% higher than a year earlier. The number of nights spent by domestic guests increased by 8.3% and that of international tourism nights by 17%. This continued a trend that started in the autumn: until then, only foreign visitor arrivals showed an increase, but then the number of domestic trips also started to rise.
In December, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) reported growth in all four major categories of commercial accommodation, with domestic overnight stays in Budapest up by 17% year-on-year and 7% in rural areas, while foreign visitors' nights in the capital and the rest of the country increased by 21% and 5% respectively.
Tourist accommodation establishments registered 2.5% more, nearly 41 million tourism nights. Domestic tourism was unable to offset the feeble performance in the first half, though. Domestic guests spent 5.1% less and foreign ones 12.5% more (respectively 21.4 million and 19.5 million) tourism nights at tourist accommodation establishments.
A similar pattern can be observed for Lake Balaton, an important tourist region. In 2023, the number of domestic overnight stays decreased by 5%, while the number of foreign overnight stays increased by 8.4%. However (unlike the national situation), this did not translate into an overall increase in traffic: it was 1.7% lower than in 2022.
Cover photo: Getty Images
