Tourism sector expansion continued in the month of July 2015. Following a strong start at the beginning of the year and outstanding data in June, accommodation statistics from the second summer month are also indicating excellent results. The fact that tourism traffic was higher in every region of the country is another positive development.

The number of tourism nights at accommodation establishments rose year-on-year by 9.5 percent in July 2015, while gross revenues at these establishments soared by 19.9 percent. Within the former data, the number of tourism nights by foreign and domestic guests was up by 12 percent and 7.5 percent, respectively, compared to the corresponding period of the previous year.

Tourist arrivals from the top six source countries showed double-digit gains; the number of German tourists, for example, rose by 15.7 percent. The total number of tourism nights was 1 million 755 thousand in July 2015. The most dynamic tourism night growth figures were recorded concerning the United Kingdom and the United States (28 percent and 23 percent, respectively), while increases ranged between 15 percent and 18 percent in case of Polish, Dutch, German and Czech guests. This trend managed to offset the 17 percent drop in arrivals from Russia.

The overall remarkable performance was also reflected in room occupancy ratios, which on average increased by 4.7 percentage points to 66.7 percent, while RevPAR also improved significantly compared to the previous year. Revenues at accommodation establishments totalled HUF 27.5bn, up by 19.9 percent year-on-year.

The 12 percent growth in the number of domestic guests has also contributed to great tourism data. In the observed period, 760 thousand domestic guests spent 2 million 189 thousand tourism nights at accommodation establishments, which constitutes an increase of 7.5 percent year-on-year. Revenues at accommodation establishments generated by domestic guests increased by 18.6 percent, year-on-year. In the month of July, spending by SZÉP Cards totalled some HUF 3.058bn, up by 9.3 percent, at 2249 accommodation establishments with card terminals.

Data from the initial seven months of the year are also highly promising: in the period January-July 2015, 5.79 million guests spent 14.4 tourism nights at accommodation establishments. The number of guests and tourism nights was thus up by 8.9 percent and 6.7 percent, respectively, compared to the same period of the previous year. In the observed, period, spending at accommodation establishments totalled HUF 115.8bn, up by some 13 percent. SZÉP Card turnover rose by 3.9 percent, reaching HUF 9.9bn.

(Ministry for National Economy)