Hungary facilitates entry rules from non-EU countries!

Travelling by plane to Hungary has been facilitated for countries outside the European Union. In order to enter the country, no immunity card is needed, only a certificate of a negative PCR test. Thanks to the newly introduced ease of travel restrictions, a further boom in tourism can be expected.

A freshly introduced government decree allows easier entry into Hungary compared to the previous epidemiological regulations – reported by the Hungarian news portal Turizmus.com.

So far, travelling by plane to Hungary from countries outside the European Union was not possible without an immunity certificate (Hungarian or foreign immunity card based on bilateral agreement or EU digital Covid certificate). However, thanks to the newly introduced government decree, which is in effect since 7th August, entering Hungary has been facilitated to travellers arriving from these countries as well.

The only requirement is a certificate of a negative PCR test result, not older than 72 hours, issued in English or Hungarian in one of the following countries:

• Member States of the European Union or candidate countries for membership of the European Union
• member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
• member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
• Russian Federation
• United Arab Emirates
• Bahrain
• countries specified in a decree based on the agreement of the Minister responsible for foreign policy and the Minister responsible for public security.

The new regulation concerns important sending markets like Britain, the US, Canada, Israel, Japan or South Korea as NATO and OECD members.

As we previously reported, since 23rd June, Hungary could be entered from six majority neighbouring countries – Austria, Slovakia, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia – at its land and water borders, except for Ukraine. However, based on the newly introduced decree, unrestricted entry has come to effect from Ukraine as well.

Thus, it is now possible to enter the territory of Hungary without restriction from all neighbouring countries – except by plane – for which neither a security certificate nor a negative PCR test is required.

Foreigners arriving in Hungary can visit accommodations, restaurants and tourist attractions without an immunity certificate.

Hungary is one of the safest countries in Europe, thanks to which, in addition to domestic tourism, the revival of inbound tourism is also expected in the short term. Based on the data registered in June, the recovery has already started. As Turizmusonline reports, the number of international guests increased by 86% and

the number of guest nights spent by foreign visitors has doubled compared to June 2020.

Numerically, this means 84,000 international guests having spent 222,000 nights in Hungary. Most of the guests stayed in a hotel; the number of nights spent there increased almost 2.5x compared to June 2020. The increase was the largest in the case of Budapest (more than 6x).

As far as domestic tourism is concerned, the number of guests reached 444,000, showing an increase of 42%, and the number of guest nights spent was 1107 thousand by which an increase of 51% could be experienced. 66% of the nights were spent in hotels, followed by boarding houses and campsites on the list of the most preferred accommodation types. The most popular tourist region was Lake Balaton, where one-third of domestic guest nights were registered.

Source: turizmus.com; turizmusonline.hu