A 16% increase in tourism nights at accommodation establishments
In November 2016, the number of nights spent by international tourists increased by 17% and that of nights spent by domestic tourists by 16% compared to a year earlier. In case of foreign arrivals the low base due to the migrant crisis, while in respect of domestic arrivals the long weekend in November contributed to the large increase. The gross revenues – calculated at current prices – of accommodation establishments grew by 17%.
In November 2016, compared to the same month of the previous year:
The number of international tourist arrivals grew by 18% and that of international tourism nights by 17% (to 900 thousand). The low base, which was the consequence of the 2015 year-end migrant crisis played a role in the significant growth. It mainly hit the capital's hotels, thus it is not surprising that the 24% sales growth of Budapest hotels accounting for two-thirds of arrivals was in the background of the recent substantial rise. Among tourist regions with significant guest turnover, in addition to the Budapest and Central Danube region, the number of foreign tourist nights grew in Western Transdanubia and at Lake Balaton.
Concerning the most significant source countries, the turnover measured on the basis of domestic tourism nights grew significantly, the number of nights spent by guests arriving from the Czech Republic and Italy grew the most (by 28%). Guests arriving from Germany spent a tenth of (4.9% more) tourist nights in domestic accommodation establishments.
The number of domestic guests grew by 10% and that of tourism nights spent by them by 16% (to 887 thousand) which may be due to the turnover increasing effect of the long weekend in November. The turnover measured on the basis of domestic tourism nights significantly increased in almost all tourist regions, the most at Lake Balaton, in Southern Great Plain and in Northern Hungary.
Room occupancy in hotels increased by 5.9 percentage points to 54.7%.
The total gross revenue of accommodation establishments (HUF 30 billion) was 17% higher. Within this, accommodation fee revenues (HUF 16.8 billion) increased by 22%, catering revenues (HUF 6.7 billion) by 4.9% and other revenues (HUF 6.6 billion) by 18%. Because of the long weekend in early November hotel prices were higher than usual for this time and tourists preferred hotels providing a higher level of services.
Széchenyi Recreation Card holders spent 38% more in accommodation establishments. Among accommodation establishments operating in November the Recreation Card was accepted by 1,711 units, in a value of HUF 1.3 billion, which accounted for 20% of domestic room revenues.
On 30 November 2016, compared to the same date of the previous year:
The number of units operating in Hungary (2,452) was almost unchanged compared to the base year, while that of bed-places grew by 0.6% (to 214 thousand).
In January–November 2016, compared to the same period of the previous year:
Accommodation establishments registered 6.5% more, a total of 25.9 million tourism nights. Foreign guests spent 6.0% more (13 million) and domestic guests spent 7.0% more (13 million) tourism nights in accommodation establishments.
Room occupancy in hotels rose by an average of 2.2 percentage points to 57%.
Accommodation establishments reached gross revenues of HUF 371.5 billion, 8.6% higher in total at current prices.
The value of the use of Széchenyi Recreation Card grew by 5.1% in accommodation establishments, guests spent a total of HUF 17.4 billion using this payment option.
Summary data, November 2016
| Indicator | Value | Change compared to same period of previous year, % | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| November | January–November | November | January–November | |
| Tourism nights spent by international tourists, thousands | 900 | 12 957 | 16.5 | 6.0 |
| Tourism nights spent by domestic tourists, thousands | 887 | 12 991 | 16.3 | 7.0 |
| Tourism nights, total, thousands | 1 787 | 25 949 | 16.4 | 6.5 |
| Revenues, total, billion HUFa) | 30.0 | 371,5 | 16.7 | 8.6 |
| In hotels: gross average room rate, HUFa) | 17 432 | 18 287 | 8.1 | 5.1 |
| REVPAR, HUFa) c) | 9 538 | 10 417 | 21.3 | 9.5 |
| TREVPAR, HUFa) d) | 16 964 | 17 562 | 16.4 | 7.4 |
| Room occupancy rate, % | 54.7 | 57.0 | 5.9b) | 2.2b) |
a) At current prices.
b) Change in percentage points.
c) REVPAR: gross room revenue per available room.
d) TREVPAR: total gross revenue per available room.