By the end of September commercial lodgers accommodated 4,3 million visitors and registered 14 million guest nights, approximately the same amount as last year. Within that foreign traffic fell by 4 percent, while the domestic rate grew 5 percent. Commercial lodgers realized 57 billion HUF in accommodation fees, 11 percent more at current prices than the year before. Four fifths of this amount were paid by foreign guests. The average fee for one guest night was 4 thousand HUF – 5,4 thousand HUF from foreign, 2 thousand HUF from domestic quests. Tourism generated and overall revenue of 1,9 billion USD, 1 percent less than the last year.
During the surveyed nine months 2,2 million foreign guests spent 8,2 million nights at commercial lodging places. Their average stay was 3,7 nights long. The longest time, 5,3 nights was spent here by Germans who account for 44 percent of all the traffic. Two thirds of that traffic was realized in hotels which experienced a slight decrease. Of the special holiday areas accomodation sales fell 7 percent in Budapest and 2 percent around Lake Balaton.
Hotel room utilization was 57 percent in Budapest, within that over 60 percent in four and five star hotels.
During the first nine months of the year the number of foreigners entering the country dropped by 14 percent, yet, even so meant more than 22 million visits. Hungarian citizens went abroad about 8 million times, a 12 percent drop from last year. –
KURUCZ JÁNOS, a Vista Utazási Központ igazgatója: “A világ utazási ipara egyenletesen növekszik, melyből Magyarországnak is vastagabb szelet juthat, de ehhez lényegesen nagyobb beruházásokra van szükség. Nyitni kellene a speciális érdeklődést kielégítő turizmus felé. Egy Balaton-átúszás is vonzó lehetne, ha megfelelő propagandát kapna. A külföldiek véleménye szerint a magyarok egyre kevésbé barátságosak, és a környezetet sem tartják már elég kultúráltnak, ezért inkább csak a kevésbé igényes turisták jönnek, akik kevés pénzt költenek nálunk.”