By the last weekend of the year, 11 percent more reservations have been received than last year, according to the Hungarian Tourism Agency.
According to the National Tourism Data Provider, travelers are planning to spend 207 thousand out of more than 365,000 guest nights in the countryside and 158 thousand in Budapest. Compared to last year, 14 percent more bookings were received for the last days of the year in the capital. Most of the rural destinations choose Lake Balaton or Mátra-Bucke.
The most popular accommodation is again the hotels, which increased by about 10 percent compared to 2022. The 2 -2-night, 2 -2-person bookings are the most typical of those who want to connect on New Year’s Eve, they wrote.
It is also evident from the data of the National Tourist Data Service Center that 72 percent of those coming from abroad enter the New Year in Budapest. Most people are expected to come from Italy, Spain and Germany, but many tourists from France and the United Kingdom will celebrate New Year’s Eve in the Hungarian capital.
Overall accommodations outside the capital can expect 12 percent higher domestic accommodation sales compared to the same period of 2022. And the bookings of international guests increased even more, by 13 percent. 77 percent of the overnight stays in the countryside, a total of 160,000 nights, were occupied by domestic travelers, and 47,000 guest nights can be linked to foreign guests, the Hungarian Tourism Agency wrote.
It was also noted that, from the last long weekend of the old year, Balaton and Mátra -Bükk can enjoy most of the guests on the last long weekend. This year, Bük-Dárvár is on the podium, which can expect significant guest traffic based on pre-bookings. The biggest expansion is Mátra-Bükk, where nearly 4,000 overnight stays were received over the festive weekend than last year.
Tourism is a strategic sector of Hungary, with about 100,000 businesses in this area in 2022, where more than 400,000 workers worked. Last year, 14 million guests spent nearly 40 million overnight stays at home accommodation, with the sector producing about 12 percent of GDP. To strengthen the competitiveness of tourism, the Hungarian Tourism Agency, the governmental organization of the tourism sector, was established in 2016. Its task is to manage tourism development, determine its strategy, coordinate the professional work in domestic and the sending countries, develop the country’s brand, and conduct domestic and international communication and sales campaigns. Hungarian Tourism Agency performs its duties in cooperation with domestic professional organizations, increasing Hungary’s tourist competitiveness and actively contributing to making our country even more attractive and experience for foreign and domestic travelers. The strategic goal is to become a leading tourist destination in Central Europe and to increase the direct and indirect contribution to the sector to 16 percent by 2030, according to the Hungarian Tourism Agency announcement.
(MTI)
