Published on: 6 November 2020

The number of tourism nights decreased by 59% in September, which was still a 15-fold increase compared to the April low.

In September 2020, as a result of the coronavirus epidemic, international tourists spent 91% 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 16% fewer nights. 88% of all tourism nights were spent by domestic guests. Total gross sales revenues declined by 65% at current prices in commercial accommodation establishments. The number of tourism nights was 15 times higher than the April low.

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

Partly as a result of measures to make border crossings more difficult, the number of foreign arrivals and tourism nights fell by 94% and 91% respectively, with 35 thousand guests spending 130 thousand tourism nights in accommodation establishments. Despite the fact that most guests stayed in hotels, the number of nights spent there decreased to less than a tenth. The decline was more than 80% in bungalow complexes, camping sites, boarding houses and community hostels. Budapest recorded the largest, 96%, downturn.

401 thousand domestic guests (24% decrease) spent 931 thousand tourism nights (16% decrease). Of the five types of commercial accommodation, only camping sites registered more tourism nights than in the same month of the previous year, where the increase was 33%. Six out of ten nights were spent in hotels, where the rate of growth was 2.8%. 21% fewer nights were registered in boarding houses and 18% fewer in bungalow complexes. Seven out of ten nights were spent in hotels, where the rate of decline was 14%. The turnover in community hostels was slightly more than half of the turnover in September of the previous year. Lake Balaton was the most popular tourist region.

Total gross sales revenues were down by 65% (to HUF 19 billion) at current prices.

With Széchenyi Recreation Card, cardholders paid 23% more at commercial accommodation establishments, totalling HUF 2.5 billion.

In September 2020:

2,390 commercial accommodation establishments, including 803 hotels and 899 boarding houses were open for part or all of the month.

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

52% fewer, a total of 12 million tourism nights were registered at commercial accommodation establishments. International guests spent 72% and domestic guests 33% fewer tourism nights (3.5 million and 8.5 million respectively) in commercial accommodation establishments.

Total gross sales revenues of commercial accommodation establishments decreased by 52% at current prices and amounted to HUF 202 billion.

Summary data, September 2020

Indicator Value Change compared to same period of previous year, %
September January–September September January–September
Tourism nights spent by international tourists, thousands1303 474–91.3–71.6
Tourism nights spent by domestic tourists, thousands9318 488–16.2–33.1
Tourism nights, total, thousands1 06111 963–59.2–52.0
Revenues, total, billion HUF a)19202–64.6–52.5

a) At current prices.