Hungarian tourism bounces back to pre-pandemic level during summer months

BUDAPEST, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Tourism in Hungary has bounced back to the pre-pandemic level, with 16.4 million guest nights registered this summer, the Hungarian Tourism Agency (MTU) said Monday.

This is the same level as the summer of 2019, MTU said.

MTU welcomed the fact that domestic tourism has maintained its momentum in recent years. "About 10.5 million of the guest nights were spent by domestic visitors in accommodation facilities, which is 12 percent more than the data for the summer of 2019," it said.

Hungary was able to welcome 2.5 times more international visitors this summer than in the summer of 2021, MTU added.

In 2021, the proportion of foreign visitors was 20 percent in the three summer months (June, July and August). Meanwhile, this year it rose to 36 percent, accounting for nearly 6 million international guest nights.

The famous Lake Balaton retained its title as the number one destination, with more than 5.4 million guests staying there, accounting for 41 percent of total rural accommodation turnover.

The largest proportion of guests in the countryside were Hungarian (75 percent of total guests), while in Budapest, 83 percent of total guests this summer were foreign tourists. The largest numbers of tourists visiting Budapest came from the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States, Israel, Italy and the Netherlands.

MTU also said that the general hotel-room occupancy rate stood at 60 percent nationally during the three summer months.