The revenue of accommodation establishments grew only by 1%

In January-August 2008, – compared with the same period of 2007 – the total number of international and domestic tourism nights was essentially unchanged in public accommodation establishments.

 In the first eight months of 2008, 2
436 thousand foreign guests spent 7 114 thousand nights in public
accommodation establishments, the number of guests increased by 4%,
the number of tourism nights was nearly the same compared with the
same period a year ago. Out of the six major source countries, fewer
tourists arrived from Germany, Austria, the United States of America
and Italy, while there was a significant increase in case of the
United Kingdom and Romania. A considerable growth can be observed in
case of the Czech Republic, Poland, Norway and Russia, too. Regarding
tourism nights in hotels, an increase can be observed in the three
and five star categories, while occupancy rates
diminished in case of all other categories.

In the observed period, public
accommodation establishments registered 2 902 thousand domestic
guests and 7 321 thousand domestic tourism nights. In parallel with
this, in the hotels accounting for 60% of domestic guest turnover the
number of tourism nights increased by 2% compared with the previous
year. In four and five star units the number of nights increased by
10 and 16% respectively. Boarding houses, which are beloved by
domestic guests and have a significant share in tourism nights,
reported 2% fewer tourism nights.

By travel purpose – in conformity
with seasonal trends – business travellers as well as conference
and congress visitors had a 29% overall share among tourists. 11% of
leisure travellers primarily sought for health tourism products. Most
guests booked individually, only 28% booked through travel agencies.
E-booking is strongly emerging among travellers (28%).

In the last eight months, hotels had an
average room occupancy rate of 50%, within this spa hotels operated
at a rate of 63%, which was slightly less than in the same period a
year ago.

In January-August, the number of nights
spent at Lake Balaton decreased by 1%, while in Budapest stagnated compared with the same period
a year ago.

In the observed period, public
accommodation establishments had gross revenues of HUF 165 billion,
which reflected an increase of 1% at current prices. Within this,
accommodation revenues reached HUF 95 billion. The gross average room
rate was HUF 14 751, a nearly sevenfold difference was registered
between one and five star room rates. The revenue per available room
in hotels (REVPAR) was HUF 7 305, however a major difference can be
seen here also, because five star hotels enforced nearly twelve-fold
rates compared with one star hotels. In January-August, the
accommodation and catering price index was up by 8% compared with the
previous year.

When evaluating the international
revenue data, it must be taken into account that the HUF exchange
rate in the first three months of this year was weaker than in the
previous years, but since April it has been rising continuously.

On 31 August 2008, 2 870 public
accommodation establishments were registered including 869 hotels
with 51 thousand rooms, 1 105 boarding houses with 15 thousand rooms
and 896 other accommodation establishments (tourist and youth
hostels, holiday houses, camping sites). In August 2008, the number
of the available bed places in public accommodation establishments
was down by 6% on the same period a year ago. In August,
accommodation establishments operating in several branches employed
33 thousand persons.