Tourists in Budapest: from where, why, and how much they spend

Budapest has become a top tourist destination in the past few years – but where do foreigners come from, for what reason and how much do they spend? Portfolio.hu’s article discovered the answers to these main questions.

Although some locals might not be fond of tourists, it is an undeniable fact that they are contributing to the country’s economic development in many ways,  as they set the standards higher – and spend more money here than locals. The three main factors of tourism include the higher rate of employability in the tourism and catering sectors, the amount of money that foreigners spend here, and the encouraging factor that stimulates the government to spend on urban developments.

Although the effects of foreigners on different sectors of the labour market might be obvious, the amount of money they spend here is definitely not.

According to the ‘Travel and Tourism Economic Impact 2018’ report, there have been several significant contributions made by tourists in Budapest in 2017:

• the direct contribution of tourists accounted for 2.4 pc of the total GDP in Hungary, which is expected to rise to 3.0 pc in 2018,
• the total (direct & indirect) contribution made up 8.0 pc of the GDP, an amount of more than HUF 3,000 billion (USD 10,9918mn),
• 157,000 jobs existed thanks to tourists, which is also expected to be higher in 2018,
• and tourists generated 5.6 pc of the total export from Hungary,
• an amount of HUF 380 billion (USD 1,394 mn) was spent on tourism investments, making up to 4.5 pc of all investments, which is expected to rise by 1.2 pc in the next ten years.