Confidence in the SZÉP card remains unbroken, with 18 percent more payments made with it in February

The SZÉP card continues to be an important driving force of domestic tourism, which contributed to the fact that 509 thousand domestic guests, a total of nearly 1.1 million guest nights, spent in domestic accommodations in February, a month with lower traffic. The number of domestic guests increased by 4.9 percent, while the number of nights spent by them increased by 6.6 percent compared to the same period in 2025. This is also important because tourism accounts for more than 14 percent of GDP and provides a livelihood for nearly 400,000 families.

As a reminder, in order to further expand the financial room for families, the government has again made it possible to purchase cold food with the SZÉP card until April 30, 2026. In this way, the government is supporting not only domestic tourism through the SZÉP card, but also temporarily expanding retail turnover. At the end of February, a total of 115.7 billion forints was still available on the cards to stimulate domestic travel and support family purchases in the spring, the Ministry of Tourism announced.

The ministry explained:

Cardholders used 34.5 billion forints from their cards, which was more than 18 percent higher than in February 2025.

Accommodation establishments nationwide recorded 3.3 percent more revenue than in the same period of the previous year.

Among the regions, the most was spent on SZÉP cards at accommodation establishments along the Hungarian coast, where this the amount accounted for 11 percent of domestic accommodation revenues at Lake Balaton.

Accommodations in Gyula and the tourist area owed their revenues to the SZÉP card in the largest proportion, where 13 percent of accommodation spending from domestic guests was offset with the SZÉP card during this period.

As they added, the unbroken popularity of the SZÉP card is also clearly demonstrated by the fact that in January the number of cardholders exceeded 3 million, while the number of acceptance points exceeded 167 thousand.

They highlighted: the The government also supports domestic tourism with various programs: it strengthens the sector with 2.5 percent, favorable interest loans through the Kisfaludy Tourism Credit Center, and within the framework of the KTH Start 2=3 campaign, additional non-refundable state support of up to 1 million forints can be applied for for Start Investment or Working Capital loans between 1-2 million forints. As part of the 5+1 point, more than 100 billion forints hospitality industry action plan, within the framework of the “5+5” financial construction, restaurant and pastry shop operators can also apply for an additional 5 million forints of non-refundable support in addition to their KTH Start loan of 5 million forints, the Ministry of National Education and Culture listed.