"The number of guest nights at Hungary's public accommodation establishments inched up by 1.1% year on year in 2007, according to preliminary data published by the Central Statistics Office (KSH) on Wednesday. The gross income of public accommodation establishments increased by 4% yr/yr at current prices.During 2007, 3.4 million international tourists (up 3% yr/yr) spent over 10 m guest nights (no change in annual terms) at public accommodation establishments. The trend signalling gradual decline since February 2006 stoped in August last year, but still it was the peak season that turned out worse than a year earlier.
While fewer tourists arrived to Hungary from the biggest “senders", Germany (-8.2%), Austria (-2%), UK (-16%), USA (-2.4%) and Italy (-5%), more visitors came from France (+6.2%), Spain (+14.2%) and Romania (+42.5%) than in 2006.
Traffic at public accommodation establishments at Lake Balaton has grown in 2007, following a decline and stagnation at best in past years. The increase can be thanked mostly to domestic guests. Gross revenue in this area totalled HUF 20.25 billion last year, up 11.7% yr/yr. The increase was attributable to a 25% rise in revenues from domestic visits, while revenues generated by international visits dropped 4.3% yr/yr.
Tourist traffic in Budapest was largely unchanged from 2006. While income from the spending of domestic tourists dropped considerably (-14.6% yr/yr), revenues from foreign guests edged up by 1.2% yr/yr.
Gross domestic revenues jumped by 11.8% yr/yr and international stays brought in 1.8% more at all accommodation facilities last year than in 2006.
The average occupancy rate in the hotels examined came to 49.8% in 2007, up 1.9 percentage points from 2006."
Source: Portfolio Online Financial Journal
07.02.2008