In an interview with the business news site Világgazdaság, Hungarian Tourism Agency (Magyar Turisztikai Ügynökség) CEO Péter Horváth revealed that statistics about tourism in the first few months of this year in the country are quite promising.

Specifically, he pointed out that

the number of nights booked in the first five months has grown four per cent since last year, rising to a total of 12.2 million,

as per data recorded by the National Touristic Data Provider Centre (NTAK).

Another encouraging trend we see in Hungarian tourism is the rising number of foreign guests visiting our country. The number of hotel bookings by people coming from our two largest sender countries, Germany and the United Kingdom, has increased by 25 per cent and 33 per cent, respectively. These two nations account for around 60 per cent of all foreign guest nights booked, Horváth went on to say. He also boasted that the number of nights reserved by Italian guests has doubled in the same period, while those by Israeli and Polish tourists have increased by 50 per cent.

However, in the meantime, domestic tourism rates have dropped. This is in line with international trends in the industry,

as Horváth pointed out. This is mostly due to people being willing to travel abroad again, as the pandemic restrictions have been lifted worldwide. During the time of the COVID pandemic, nights booked by domestic guests amounted to about 70 per cent of total guest nights. By contrast, this year, it is only slightly below 50 per cent.

The tourism expert also elaborated on the increased number of tourists coming to visit our country from abroad, saying:

‘Apart from international tourist traffic increasing in Hungary, it is just as important to note that the distribution of foreign tourists is also changing. They are visiting the countryside in higher proportions than before, and not just the Lake Balaton area. In the town of Gyula and its region, for example, the number of foreign guests visiting has increased by 50 per cent, the largest increase in that regard nationwide. Also, this number has grown in the Győr–Pannonhalma and the Pécs–Villány tourism regions by 13 per cent each as well, just as growth has been measured in all other regions of the country.’

Horváth believes this is a result of a concentrated effort by his agency to effectively market all regions of Hungary to both foreign and domestic travellers through digital media, as well as the previously completed attraction site and accommodation development projects. He also went on to stress the importance of the tourism sector in Hungary’s economy, pointing out that it contributes nearly 13 per cent of the country’s total GDP.

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