Contrary to previous fake news and rumors, there was no decline at Lake Balaton, and even records were broken in domestic tourism.
Rumors about the crisis in Lake Balaton hit one another in the summer, but the president of the Hungarian Tourism Agency (MTÜ) warned even then that it is too early to draw conclusions, as the most accurate result can be announced at the end of the season. On Wednesday morning, the numbers for the summer season were announced, which were presented by Zoltán Guller, the president of MTÜ, Áron Kincses, the first person of the KSH, and Tamás Flesch, the president of the Association of Hungarian Hotels and Restaurants (MSZÉSZ). In addition to the numbers of Lake Balaton, we also got an idea of the state of tourism in the country.
"The tourism image of Balaton painted as terrible does not meet reality"
Zoltán Guller indicated earlier. The president of MTÜ also pointed out that there were many rumors and fake news about Balaton tourism, which, according to him, some of the media picked up and continued to spread. It turned out to be such a false rumor when Tamás Flesch, the president of MSSZÉSZ, announced at the beginning of the summer season that according to the association's data, there are 30-40 percent fewer guests visiting Lake Balaton this season.
Zoltán Guller then pointed out that at the moment of the statement, the association had only 85 hotels as members with a total of 7,553 rooms, while there were 210 hotels with 13,400 rooms here, and at that time we had not yet talked about the 13,000 smaller private and other accommodations With its 22,000 rooms, which the association has no insight into. On the other hand, the Hungarian Tourist Agency manages all accommodation services with the NTAK system, since every accommodation now has to use some kind of accommodation management software where the accommodation providers administer the bookings. From these software, the relevant data are automatically sent to the online statistical system, and MTÜ experts can monitor the performance of domestic tourism in real time.
Currently, we receive data from 45,000 accommodations to the NTAK, we know exactly where guests of which nationality arrive, how many days they stay, and how much they spend
- said the president of MTÜ in an interview with our newspaper, adding that the agency obtains all this information anonymously from accommodation data, Google searches, mobile cell and bank card data. The president of the agency stated at the time that although the numbers were presented to refute fake news, the most accurate diagnosis of tourism can only be made at the end of the season. And on Wednesday morning, the latest figures for tourism came in, so there is no room for rumours.
Records were broken
"We've had a great summer months and look forward to another great season"
Zoltán Guller began his presentation. The president of the MTÜ once again highlighted that a lot of fake news and rumors about domestic tourism, especially during the summer season, are spreading, which he says is understandable, since this is where most of the income is realized. However, according to the president of the agency, no conclusions should be drawn in the middle of the season, since the numbers at the end of the season are the most accurate. He highlighted that, contrary to previous reports, there was no decline at Lake Balaton, and even records were broken in domestic tourism.
More than 6 million guests arrived at Hungarian accommodation in the three summer months, which is 1 percent more than the result of last year's high season, and 6.3 percent more than the 2019 figure
Zoltán Guller presented NTAK's numbers, according to whom domestic tourism could close with a record year, although the Russian-Ukrainian war is holding back the performance, and as a result, the lack of Ukrainian and Russian tourists and the weather also greatly affect tourism numbers.
Compared to 2022, almost 2.6 million tourists arrived from abroad, nearly 15 percent more, even more than in the 2019 high season. In the strongest summer month, August, 6.7 million guest nights were realized in commercial, private and other accommodations, which also exceeds last year's data. During the main season as a whole, hotels across the country received 6 percent more guests than last year, and even at Lake Balaton 5 percent more than in the summer of 2022 - it was announced at the joint summer evaluation press conference of the Hungarian Tourist Agency, the Central Statistical Office and the Association of Hungarian Hotels and Restaurants .
With more than 17 million summer guest nights, domestic tourism reached the value measured in the summer of 2022, and the result of the record year of 2019 was surpassed by almost 3 percent
Zoltán Guller evaluated the season. The president of MTÜ added that, in line with European trends, inbound traffic in Hungary also increased enormously in the summer. The 2.6 million foreign tourists who arrived in June-August spent 7.2 million guest nights in Hungary, which exceeded last year's data by more than 12 percent.
It is not worth expressing an opinion in the middle of the season
During the summer season, Tamás Flesch, who gave his opinion and therefore wrong numbers, responded by saying that the Association of Hungarian Hotels and Restaurants (MSZÉSZ) only sees a part of the sector, especially hotels. He said that the numbers given to Index at the beginning of the season were a snapshot, and that he could paint such a negative picture because, according to him, "the season got off to a slow start."
The data correlates with our numbers, the comparison with 2019 is very fair
- Tamás Flesch responded to the numbers presented by MTÜ, according to whom more and more people love and discover Lake Balaton, both domestic and foreign.
At the press event, it was revealed that in the main summer season, three-quarters of the tourist traffic benefited from rural accommodations, and nearly 42 percent of the approximately 13 million guest nights were registered at Lake Balaton.
About 16 percent more Hungarian guests arrived at the Hungarian sea than in 2019.
Balaton hotels welcomed 408,000 foreign guests, which is 4 percent more compared to 2022 and 13 percent higher than 2019 figures.
Tamás Flesch said of the hotel industry that it had a "very successful season", in which large-scale events such as the World Athletics Championship played a major role. The specialist refuted the claims that the accommodation would be too expensive, according to him, in international comparison, the domestic offer is very favorable in terms of price-value ratio. The president of the association explained that, on the whole, this summer too, Hungarian hotels had a fairly high turnover of 7 million guest nights, which was almost identical to the result of last year's high season.
They come to Hungary from all over the world
3.6 million domestic guests spent 9.9 million nights here, the number of domestic guests exceeded the results of the record year 2019 by 10 percent, and the number of guest nights by more than 6 percent. This year's summer result was somewhat lower than the 2022 main season data, but this is also due to the fact that, for the first time after the epidemic, more Hungarians vacationed abroad this year - explained the participants of the press event.
Áron Kincses, the president of the KSH, explained that the number of guest nights spent in tourist accommodation in August 2023 was 6.7 million, which is 0.8 percent higher than in the same period of the previous year, the number of nights spent by domestic guests decreased by 6 percent, the number of nights spent by foreign guests It rose by 11 percent.
The World Athletics Championships in August 2023 significantly boosted Budapest's tourist traffic: the number of foreign guest nights from Australia and Oceania increased by more than 120 percent, and those from Africa and Asia by nearly 60 and 50 percent, respectively, in the capital compared to August 2022
- pointed out the president of the statistical office, noting that in terms of domestic guest nights, the Balaton area was the most popular, while in the case of foreign guest nights, the Balaton area and the capital were the most popular in August 2023.
Budapest also took its share of the record
In Budapest, between June and August this year, tourists spent nearly 4 million guest nights in the capital's accommodations, which is more than 13 percent higher than the 2022 summer figure, and 99 percent closer to the level of the record year of 2019, it was announced at the press event.
In addition to the strong summer results, thanks to the data of the National Tourist Information Center, we can already see the figures for September, the number of guest nights in January-September was almost 33 million. This nationally exceeds the 2022 value by 1.2 percent and is only a hair less than in 2019
- said Zoltán Guller, emphasizing that accommodation revenues also increased by 31 percent above inflation. He added that, based on the data of the National Tourist Information Center, the capital city in particular took its share of the increase, where tourists spent 13.2 percent more nights than a year ago between January and September. The 22.6 million rural guest nights spent in the first nine months already reached the record year of 2019, and domestic traffic exceeded it by 1.2 percent. This year, 12 percent more domestic tourists chose Lake Balaton than in the last year before the epidemic, and the number of foreign guests increased significantly compared to both 2022 (10.6 percent) and 2019 (7.5 percent).
The pre-bookings for the rest of the year at NTAK are also encouraging. After the 3.4 million guest nights in September, MTÜ forecasts 3 million guest nights for October and 2.4 million for November. This predicts an increase of nearly one and a half percent in October, and 3 percent in November and December, which means encouraging prospects for the whole year as well.
Featured image: MTI/György Varga
