In November 2015, the number of guests and tourism nights was up by 4.5 percent (to 675 thousand) and 2.4 percent (to 1.52 million), respectively, year-on-year. The volume of revenues at accommodation establishments grew by 7.9 percent (to HUF 13.67bn) compared to the same period of the previous year. Occupancy ratios and the average price per hotel room (RevPAR) were also higher.
In November 2015, 366 thousand foreign guests spent 761 thousand tourism nights at accommodation establishments, which constitute growth of 9.4 percent and 6.6 percent, respectively. Year-on-year, accommodation establishment revenues generated by domestic guests grew by 17.3 percent, thanks partly to the SZÉP recreation voucher. In the month of November, 309 thousand foreign guests (-0.7 percent) spent 762 thousand tourism nights at accommodation establishments. The slight drop was partly the consequence of recession in Russia, and it was partly due to the temporary impact of negative media reports of Hungary in Western European markets concerning the migration issue as well as repercussions of the Paris terror attack. (The volume of arrivals fell by 13 percent from France.)
In light of booking data from December, however, this seems to have been only a temporary phenomenon and not the beginning of a negative trend.
As far as the number of tourism nights by foreigners is concerned, in the month of November four out of Hungary’s top ten sender countries posted growth: 1 percent by Germany, 1.8 percent by the Czech Republic, 3.7 percent by Poland and 47.5 percent (!) by Romania.
In Hungary, the number of SZÉP Card holders has reached 1 million 250 thousand and the amount made available by the vouchers grew by 20 percent year-on-year, to more than HUF 90bn.
Data from November 2015 signal that the total number of guests at accommodation establishments may exceed 10 million for the full year and the number of tourism nights may reach 25 million.
(Ministry for National Economy)