More Passengers at Lake Balaton in 2022 Cruise Season

More than two million people travelled in the Balaton Shipping Company's (Bahart) 176th Balaton shipping season, which ended at the weekend, and the number of passengers on scheduled vessels and ferries has increased since last year, the state-owned company told the state news agency MTI on Monday.

They noted that although this year's scheduled sailing season ended on October23, there will still be individual ship programs and ferries will operate all year round.

According to the company's summary, summer traffic was outstanding this year. Nearly 700,000 passengers travelled on Bahart ships, 7.7% more than in the same period last year. The number of passengers on services between towns increased by 4.5%, while the number of passengers on cruise, program and event ships rose by 17.7%.

The most popular routes continued to be Siófok-Balatonfüred-Tihany and Fonyód-Badacsony. The ports of Siófok, Keszthely and Balatonfüred were the most popular for cruises and program boats. The company's party boat and magic boat programs were this year's hits, with the largest increase in passenger numbers. More than 22,000 people chose the party boats and 9,000 the magic boats.

According to the announcement, many took advantage of the shipping company's online ticketing facility, which was launched this year. The Kajla program was as popular as in previous years, with 5,326 children taking a boat trip around Lake Balaton.