Hungary reports strong tourism rebound in 2022

Hungary's tourism sector saw a strong recovery in 2022, with the number of overnight stays in the country's commercial accommodations increasing by almost 40 percent year-on-year to nearly 40 million, the authorities said on Monda.

"The number of overnight stays was only 5 percent fewer than in 2019 before the (COVID-19) pandemic," Zoltan Guller, director of the Hungarian Tourism Agency, said.

Last year, revenues from commercial lodging increased by 52 percent year-on-year to 668 billion Hungarian forints (1.86 billion U.S. dollars), Guller said.

Overall, the capital city, Budapest, was the most popular tourist destination in Hungary, while the northeastern mountain regions of Matra and Bukk, as well as Lake Balaton, were the most frequently visited destinations among domestic travelers.

Most foreign visitors to Hungary arrived from Germany, followed by the Czech Republic, Romania, the United Kingdom and Poland.

Guller said that last year's tourism figures were still lower than those of 2019 due to fewer visitors from the United States, Russia and China.