Tourism, catering

Tourism is the activity of people who travel from their usual environment to another place, where they spend no more than one year for recreational, business or other purposes, but do not engage in gainful activity. 'Tourism and catering' includes statistics on the transit traffic of border crossings in Hungary, on the demand side of inbound, domestic and outbound tourism as well as on tourists, their journeys and related spending. In addition, it contains statistics on the capacity, guest turnover and revenues of commercial accommodation establishments and non-profit and for-profit other accommodation establishments in Hungary, as well as the characteristics of catering units operated in Hungary.

Featured

Number of tourism nights fell by 93% in May, Commercial accommodation establishments, May 2020

In May 2020, as a result of the coronavirus epidemic, international tourists spent 98% and domestic tourists 86% 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. 88% of all tourism nights were spent by domestic guests. Total gross sales revenues declined by 93% at current prices in commercial accommodation establishments.

Significant drop in sales of catering units

In January – April 2020, catering units achieved a total turnover of HUF 313 billion in Hungary. After increasing in the carnival period at the beginning of the year, the volume of unadjusted sales of catering units fell year-on-year by 29% in January-April, by 43% in March and by 75% in April due to restrictive measures related to the coronavirus epidemic.

Significantly decreasing passenger traffic at Hungary’s border crossing points

In March 2020 the passenger traffic at Hungary’s border crossing points already showed the restrictions put in place due to the spreading coronavirus pandemic. A total of 2.0 million people crossed Hungary’s external Schengen borders; the traffic had almost halved compared to a year earlier. The limitations mainly affected the leaving Hungarian and the entering foreign citizens.

International trips, Quarter 4 2019

In the last quarter of 2019, foreigners made 3.8% more trips to Hungary with 5.3% more spending than a year earlier. Austrian and German visitors spent the most. Among overnight visitors, half preferred Budapest and a quarter Western Transdanubia. Number of trips, length of stay and total spending grew for both Hungarians travelling abroad and foreigners visiting Hungary throughout the year.

Dissemination of European Statistics after Brexit in statistical publications

On 1 February 2020, a withdrawal agreement entered into force between the European Union and the United Kingdom (Brexit). Reducing the EU to 27 member states significantly changes aggregated (average, total, etc.) EU data. However, due to the different purposes of use, consideration should be given to the simultaneous communication of old and new aggregates, and the back-calculation of time series for the new composition is also an issue to be addressed. Taking all this into account, it is necessary to restructure the publication of EU statistics.