International visitors spent more in Hungary

Last year 39.6 million international visitors spent HUF 1087 billion in Hungary, 17% more than a year ago.

 The spending of tourist travellers
accounted for 67% of international tourism export, HUF 731 billion,
14% more than a year earlier. Same-day visits accounted for 30% of
revenues (HUF 324 billion), which is a substantial increase compared
with the same period a year ago. Shopping visitors accounted for 37%,
transit visitors for 20% of total spending of same-day visitors.
Overnight visitors accounted for HUF 764 billion of worth of tourist
services in our country. As a significant part of their spending,
leisure trips accounted for 69%, while business trips 19%. Tourist
expenditures showed an increase in proportion of 4 percentage points,
which may be unambiguously linked to leisure tourism.

There is a minor change in the
structure of consumption compared to the same period a year ago.

Same-day visitors had an increase in
proportion of expenditures in case of other commodities, food and
fuel, while had a decrease in all other categories. Overnight
visitors showed no change in their

consumption structure compared with a
year earlier. Accommodation and catering services accounted for 34%,
commodities 21%, foods 11%, other services 9% and traffic 8% in the
spending of Hungary-bound travellers.

One out of every two same-day visitors
is a transit passenger. Nearly 100% of visitors from Bulgaria, France, Switzerland, the
Netherlands and the United Kingdom were transit visitors. Visitors
from Romania account for the largest proportion of transit passengers
– 35%. 17% of same-day visitors arrived with tourist purposes, most
of them came from Austria and Slovakia. 34% of same-day visitors from
Austria were day-trippers. In case of Croatia and Slovakia, this
proportion varied around 21%. Same-day shoppers accounted for a
significant proportion (26%). 85% of extended-stay visitors came with
tourist purposes, an increase of 4 percentage points on 2007.
Business travellers accounted for 14%, along with an increase of 1
percentage point. Overnight visitors came from Germany, Austria and
Romania in the highest numbers.

In 2008, Budapest (41%) and Western
Transdanubia (27%) were our most visited tourist regions by overnight international visitors.