Minister: Tourism is Booming in Hungary

There is a tourism boom in Hungary, never before have so many people been on holiday in Hungary and never before have so many foreign tourists visited Hungary as this year, the Minister of National Economy, Márton Nagy has said at a press conference in Budapest.

He noted that in June-August, almost seven million more tourists than ever before arrived at Hungarian accommodation establishments nationwide, a 9% increase compared to last year's outstanding result. The number of overnight stays rose by 3% to almost 18 million.

The Minister called the airport the gateway to Hungary and Budapest, with passenger traffic reaching 11.5 million by August and expected to reach 17.5 million by the end of the year, more than one million more than the peak figure for 2019. He added that Hungary received the most foreign tourists by air via the UK, as well as from Italy, Germany, Spain and Switzerland.

He pointed out that Hungary is dominated by German tourists, not only in terms of arrivals by air, but there is also a steady increase in arrivals from China, which already exceeded the total for the whole of last year between January and August this year. In addition to the rise in the number of German and Chinese tourists, he was of thew view that it is important that more Americans are also visiting Hungary, as visitors from these countries tend to spend more, he noted.

He said the number of foreign visitors in the summer of 2024 was 3.1 million, up 15.3% from 2023. The number of overnight stays by foreign visitors approached eight million, 7.3% higher than in 2023.