TOURISM Domestic tourism record broken in 2021

tourism

BEST DOMESTIC SEASON EVER

DOMESTIC TOURISM PERFORMANCE IN 2021 EVEN EXCEEDED THE RECORD YEAR OF 2019

At the end of December, in his last podcast of the year 2021, Zoltán Guller, CEO of the Hungarian Tourism Agency (MTÜ), summarized developments of the past year in Hungarian tourism. “Despite the fact that operators were closed in the first half of the year, this summer was the best ever domestic season in the history of Hungarian tourism,” he stressed.

During the interview, reviewed by one of the major Hungarian websites of this profession, turizmus.com, Zoltán Guller said that despite the global pandemic situation, tourism in Hungary grew significantly in 2021. “Demand is changing: domestic tourism has increased, but it may take longer for inbound tourism to recover,” he pointed out.

Beating the 2019 records

He added that "there are also segments of Hungarian tourism where record levels have been achieved. The number of nights spent in hotels this year is 24% higher than last year, and this is mainly due to domestic traffic. Rural tourism is already performing at pre-pandemic levels." In the summer of 2021, nearly 15 million nights were spent in domestic accommodation establishments, 22% more than a year earlier and 31% more than in the summer of 2019. This means that domestic tourism performance last year even exceeded the record year of 2019. Tourists spent 50% of all nights in 4-5-star hotels, and the average occupancy rate for fourstar hotels is now 64%, Zoltán Guller stressed. Tourism revenues were also discussed. The CEO said that in 2021, the vast majority of the revenues, HUF 360 billion, was generated by hotels, 36% more than a year before. All in all, hospitality revenues reached HUF 1,000 billion, up 22% on the previous year.

Slower growth in the capital

In Budapest, however, the recovery of tourism was much slower, although there are encouraging signs: a gradual increase in inbound tourism, with passenger traffic at Budapest Airport reaching 50% of pre-crisis levels in September and 60% in October.

"We expect a strong end to the year, with the city full of Italians and Spaniards on New Year's Eve," Zoltán Guller pointed out. The capital produced only 20% of the total number of guest nights in Hungary, but this is already an achievement, as a year ago the figure was only 14%. The order of sending markets has shifted, with tourists from the Far East and the US being replaced by Germans and visitors from neighboring countries.

Monitoring tourism postings

Zoltán Guller also highlighted that the MTÜ staff is constantly monitoring social media with the help of artificial intelligence. When planning campaigns, they build on what nationalities of tourists post about what topics. As it turned out, the most active on social media were the British and American tourists, followed by Germans and Italians, who also posted a lot about their trips to Hungary.

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