Last year was another success story in the history of Hungary’s tourism sector. Tourism traffic was higher in each region; the number of arrivals and tourism nights grew by 7.4 percent and 5.4 percent, respectively. Revenues at accommodation establishments soared by 10 percent year-on-year, above the high base of 2014, another year of record highs. In the winter holiday season, Hungarians spent 39 000 more tourism nights at accommodation establishments than foreign visitors. This accounts for growth of 1.3 percent year-on-year.
In December 2015, the number of arrivals and tourism nights rose by 4.4 percent (to 673 thousand) and 1.3 percent (to 1.5 million), compared to December 2014. The volume of accommodation revenues and total revenues increased by 4.3 percent (to HUF 13.88bn) and by 4.9 percent (to HUF 26.2bn), respectively, year-on-year.
Along with the 0.1 percent growth of occupancy ratio (to 44.4 percent), average room prices were also higher by 3.6 percent (to HUF 17 909) at hotels. Thanks to that, RevPAR grew by 3.8 percent year-on-year, to HUF 7 960.
In the last month of the year, 365 thousand domestic guests spent 773 thousand tourism nights at accommodation establishments, which constitutes increases of 9.3 percent and 6.4 percent, respectively. The volume of accommodation establishment revenues soared by 9.7 percent (to HUF 5.92bn), compared to the same period of last year.
In the observed period, 308 thousand foreign guests (-0.8 percent) spent 734 thousand tourism nights (-3.6 percent) at accommodations observed by the statistical office. Thus, traditionally volatile data on foreign guests were offset by remarkable growth concerning domestic guests.
During the past year, there were minor changes concerning the top 10 sender countries in terms of tourism nights: while Germany maintained the top ranking despite a slight decrease of 1.7 percent, former third-placed United Kingdom changed position with Austria, which posted an increase of 2.5 percent. British guests spent 17.6 percent more tourism nights in the country compared to the corresponding period of the previous year. Other countries with encouraging data were the USA (+13.3 percent), the Czech Republic (+7.6 percent), Romania (+7.1 percent) and Italy (+6 percent).
Volatility in the last quarter’s figures highlight the fact that steadily growing domestic tourism demand helps counterbalance large changes in international demand. The increase in domestic tourism traffic has also been underpinned by several pro-family Government measures, such as a lower personal income tax rate, public utility price cuts, family tax allowances, etc.).
This year, the Ministry for National Economy’s main tourism objectives have all been surpassed: the number of arrivals was above 10 million, the number of tourism nights was above 25 million and revenues totalled more than HUF 360bn.
Turnover on SZÉP Cards has also hit a record high. According to data compiled by the Ministry, spending by the more than 1.2 card holders grew by 14 percent, and thus they added HUF 83bn to the sector’s revenues.
(Ministry for National Economy)
