Steeplechase

Kovács László
elnök
MVI

He told that the summer didn’t bring the boom the hospitality sector had hoped for, as having no vaccination cards kept many guests away from restaurants. It didn’t help that restaurants were forced to increase prices, as cooking ingredients and worker salaries elevated. Probably those restaurant owners are in the worst situation, who spent their savings on keeping their employees.

In Budapest most bar and restaurant owners are waiting for the autumn, hoping that the fourth wave of the pandemic won’t be as devastating for the sector as the previous three. Allowing SZÉP card use was a big help: there are places where 50-60 percent of the sales turnover comes from this. Estimation is that it will take 1-2 years for the hospitality sector to recover – back in 2019 sales turnover was HUF 1,400 billion, but one year later only HUF 400 billion – and perhaps 3-4 years for international tourism to return.//