Unwavering optimism

This article is available for reading in Trade magazin 2025/2-3.

László Kovács
president
MVI

“There was a lot of uncertainty ahead of 2024 in the hospitality sector, which only reduced a little in 2025. Inflation hit the industry harder than the average, but despite this the sector finally reached the 2019 sales performance level – we have managed to do this with 6,000 fewer restaurants and 10,000 fewer employees. The number of restaurants decreased by 3-5 per day (their number was a little below 44,000 at the end of 2024). Owing to the decline in the purchasing power of Hungarian guests, sales suffered a little. Budapest is still a better place to run a restaurant than the countryside. The National Tourism Data Supply Centre (NTAK) system is one of the most progressive elements of the government efforts to develop the sector. I hope that this year the bottle return problems of bar and restaurant owners will finally be solved.

The anomalies in the system were outlined to MOHU officials in September, with support from the big trade associations. I am always optimistic about our profession and I see hospitality as a sector that is more diverse today than it was before the pandemic, but still I don’t think 2025 will be any easier. Tasks include adapting to the challenges of digitalisation and tackling the competition from fast-food restaurants, petrol stations and food retail chains, who are expanding their gastronomic offering”. //