Published on: 7 October 2020

Number of tourism nights fell by 33% in August

In August 2020, as a result of the coronavirus epidemic, international tourists spent 71% fewer tourism nights in commercial accommodation establishments (hotels, boarding houses, camping sites, bungalow complexes and community hostels) compared to the same period of the previous year. Domestic guests spent 2.1% fewer nights. 81% of all tourism nights were spent by domestic guests. Total gross sales revenues declined by 33% at current prices in commercial accommodation establishments. A dynamic year-on-year growth in domestic guest traffic that began in June also continued in August.

In August 2020, compared to the same month of the previous year:

The number of foreign arrivals and tourism nights fell by 73% and 71% respectively, with 204 thousand guests spending 607 thousand tourism nights in accommodation establishments. Most guests stayed in hotels or camping sites. The number of nights spent in hotels fell by a quarter. 54-58% declines were seen in bungalow complexes, camping sites and boarding houses, and an 84% fall in community hostels. Budapest recorded the largest, 85%, downturn.

916 thousand domestic guests (1.4% decrease) spent 2.5 million tourism nights (2.1% decrease). Of the five types of commercial accommodation, the trend of previous months has also reversed in hotels and camping sites after boarding houses: more tourism nights were registered than in the same month last year. Six out of ten nights were spent in hotels, where the rate of growth was 2.8%. 13% more nights were registered in boarding houses and 15% more in camping sites. Community hostels accounted for half of the turnover in August of the previous year. Lake Balaton was the most popular tourist region.

Total gross sales revenues were down by 33% (to HUF 47 billion) at current prices.

In August 2020:

2,784 commercial accommodation establishments, including 892 hotels and 1,057 boarding houses were open for part or all of the month.

In January-August 2020, compared to the same period of the previous year:

51% fewer, a total of 11 million tourism nights were registered at commercial accommodation establishments. International guests spent 69% and domestic guests 35% fewer tourism nights (3.3 and 7.6 million respectively) in commercial accommodation establishments.

Total gross sales revenues of commercial accommodation establishments decreased by 51% at current prices and amounted to HUF 183 billion.

Summary data, August 2020

Indicator Value Change compared to same period of previous year, %
August January–August August January–August
Tourism nights spent by international tourists, thousands6073 344–71,3–68,9
Tourism nights spent by domestic tourists, thousands2 5307 557–2,1–34,7
Tourism nights, total, thousands3 13610 902–33,2–51,2
Revenues, total, billion HUF a)47183–32,6–50,8

a) At current prices.