Hungarian accommodation establishments received 5.25 million guests in the initial seven months of 2014, who spent 13.4 million tourism nights in the country and the gross accommodation charges they paid totalled HUF 101bn. The number of domestic guests and gross accommodation charge revenues continued to record growth exceeding 10 percent, while the total number of guests and the number of tourism nights gained 7.3 percent and 5.6 percent, respectively.

In the seventh month of the year – according to data published by the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH) – 1.2 million guests spent 3.61 million tourism nights, showing growth of 5 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively, compared to July 2013. Gross accommodation fee revenues at accommodation establishments totalled HUF 22.6bn, up by 9.4 percent year-on-year.

Domestic tourism traffic registered massive growth with regard to every indicator, as the number of guests (670 thousand) was up by 6.1 percent and respective gross revenues (HUF 10.2bn) increased by more than 10 percent.

The number of foreign guests (540 thousand) was 3.7 percent higher, however, the number of international tourism nights was slightly down in July (by 0.7 percent). On the other hand, these guests spent more on accommodation, altogether some HUF 12.4bn.

As far as the number of tourism nights is concerned in July, the largest increase among the top 10 countries of origin was recorded regarding the USA (16 percent), but the 13 percent and 11 percent growth related to Slovakia and Poland, respectively, are also impressive. The number of guests from the United Kingdom was also higher (5.1 percent), while increases regarding Austria and Russia were slightly below the trend (with 1.4 percent and 1.9 percent, respectively).

The tourism traffic of Hungary’s top 10 partners in the period January-July 2014 was also encouraging. Germany continues to be at the top of the ranking, followed by newcomer Russia ahead of former second Austria. In January-July 2014, tourism traffic growth continued to be very high respecting Russia or the USA (9.9 percent and 8.9 percent), or it even reached a double-digit figure for the Czech Republic (11.6 percent) and Slovakia (17.5 percent).

The number of SZÉP Cards issues has already passed the one million mark and payments related to these cards reached HUF 9.26bn in the period January-July, up 19 percent year-on-year.

Although the 2013 base was high, monthly data keep beating former statistics. One of the most important indicators of the sector, hotel RevPAR (gross revenue per available room) continued to show double-digit growth in the observed period (9.8 percent).

(Ministry for National Economy)