HUNGARY. April tourism figures from Hungary show some recovery for the beleaguered sector, driven mainly by domestic tourists. However, the number of foreign visitors also picked up during the month, figures released last week by the Central Statistical Office (KSH) reveal.
In the January to April period, the number of guest nights spent by foreigners in Hungarian hotels and registered commercial accommodation dropped by -4.6% and stayed under 1.8 million, despite +3.4% growth in the number of international arrivals.
The number of international arrivals increased +7% in April compared to the same period 2002, after a -3.5% decline in March. Foreign guest nights in commercial accommodation dropped by -4.6% in January to April, but grew by +3.0% in April over a year earlier. Guest nights spent by EU arrivals dropped by -3.9% to 1.22 million in the first four months but were up +5.4% in April, to 436,000.
Total European guest nights totalled 1.4 million during the first four months, a -0.9% decline from the base period, but in April growth was over +6%. The number of guest nights spent by Asian travellers declined -35.1% in January-April, and tourist guest nights from the Americas were down -14.0% in the same period compared to 2002.
The number of guest nights by domestic tourists showed an even greater +17.7% increase in April. In January-April, the number of domestic guests grew by +2.4%.
According to KSH, expenditure in hotels and other commercial accommodation reached HUF18.3 billion (US$81 million) in January to April, down -4.6% from a year earlier.
