Foreign, especially Chinese tourists save Lake Balaton

Foreign visitors account for a little more than one-fourth of guest nights at destinations around Lake Balaton this summer, the Hungarian Tourism Agency (MTÜ) said on Friday.

The foreign visitors, mainly from German-speaking countries and the Visegrád Group, have generated close to one-third of tourism accommodations revenues on Lake Balaton, Hungary’s most popular holiday resort. The largest, close to sevenfold, increase was registered in the number of guest nights spent in the region by Chinese tourists, compared with the main season in 2022, MTU said in a statement. Napi.hu wrote that the number of tourists from China rose sevenfold this year.

By mid-season, almost 180,000 foreign visitors spent close to 650,000 guest nights on the shores of the “Hungarian sea”. Total summer guest nights registered at Lake Balaton reached 2.4 million by mid-July. Another 1.1 million guest nights have been booked around the lake for the rest of the summer, including 31 percent by foreign guests. Those bookings show the most popular destinations for foreigners are Siófok, on the southern shore, Révfülöp and the spa town of Hévíz.

Meanwhile, the number of guest nights booked by Hungarians fell significantly, Naphíre wrote.

HERE are the most beautiful girls at Lake Balaton. And THIS article is about a stomach-churning video: two tonnes of expired food found in a restaurant on Lake Balaton.