In September, the number of nights spent by international tourists increased by 1.4% and that of nights spent by domestic tourists fell 4.7% year-on-year in commercial accommodation establishments (hotels, boarding houses, camping sites, bungalows and community hostels).

The number of international tourist arrivals increased by 2.6%. Domestic arrivals were down 3.5%.

Considering seasonal and calendar effects, the number of foreign tourism nights grew by 2% while the number of domestic tourism nights declined at the same rate. 

Over the course of the month, 577,000 international guests spent almost 1.5 million tourism nights in Hungary. The number of nights spent increased slightly in hotels and boarding houses, and grew significantly in hostels.

KSH says that foreign guests overwhelmingly stayed in the Budapest-Central Danube region, spending about 60% of their tourism nights there, representing a 3% year-on-year growth.

The number of domestic guests stood at 527,000, accounting for some 1.1 million tourism nights. The value of the latter indicator declined in hotels, community hostels and camping sites, and increased in boarding houses and bungalows.

The regions, with the exception of Lake Tisza and Southern Transdanubia, showed a decline. Every fifth domestic tourism night was registered at Lake Balaton.

The occupancy rate of hotels was 66.4%. Thanks to the aforementioned 6.9% year-on-year increase, gross sales revenues came to HUF 52 billion. Accommodation fee revenues grew by 6.7%, to HUF 31 bln.

With Széchenyi Recreation Card, cardholders paid a total of HUF 2 bln at accommodations, representing an increase of 72%.

Slight fall in tourism nights, establishment numbers

Some 73 fewer accommodation establishments were in operation on the last day of September this year than on the same day of 2018, meaning that 3,179 establishments were working with 90,000 rooms and 294,000 bed-places.

In the first nine months of 2019, the number of tourism nights registered by commercial accommodation establishments fell by 0.2% to a total of 24.7 million. International guests spent 0.1% more and domestic guests 0.5% fewer tourism nights in Hungary, amounting to 12.2 million and 12.5 million respectively.

Room occupancy in hotels remained unchanged at 62.3%.

The total gross sales revenues of commercial accommodation establishments were HUF 421 bln, 8% more at current prices.