More Overnight Stays at Lake Balaton Last Year

Last year, 2.8 million guests spent 8.8 million guest nights at Lake Balaton, which means 38% more guests and 27% more guest nights compared to the previous year, the professional director of the Hungarian Tourism Agency (MTÜ), Szabolcs Juhász said at the meeting of the Balaton Development Council on Friday.

The Balaton tourism region was followed by the Mátra-Bükk region with 2.6 million guest nights, and then Debrecen and its surroundings with 2.2 million, Szabolcs Juhász added.

The return of foreigners shows that while in 2021, Hungarians accounted for 84% of guests, last year, even with the increase in traffic, only 75%. The largest number of visitors came from Germany, followed by the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria and Poland, he said.

He also pointed out that 63% of the total annual visitor traffic at Balaton takes place in the summer months.

Hotels accounted for 45% of Balaton's guest traffic, while 33% was registered in private and other accommodation. Almost 10% of payments were made by the holiday voucher SZÉP card, the professional director said.

As for the national figures, he said that in 2022, 14.2 million guests spent nearly 40 million guest nights in Hungarian accommodation establishments, which is 38% more than in 2021 and 5% less than in 2019, the most successful year for Hungarian tourism.