World Athletics Championships in Budapest huge success: over 170,000 guests attended

More than 170,000 guests spent close to 460,000 guests nights in Budapest when the capital hosted the 2023 World Athletics Championships on August 19-27, the Hungarian Tourism Agency (MTÜ) said on Thursday.

Around 71% of guest nights were spent at four- and five-star hotels, MTÜ said, citing figures from the National Tourism Data Service Centre (NTAK). Private accommodations accounted for 34% of guest nights, it added.

Revenue of tourism accommodations more than doubled from the same period a year earlier.

Foreign visitors accounted for 85% of guest nights in the capital during the event. Those visitors came from around 200 countries, but Brits and Germans each accounted for around 9% of the total number of guest nights spent by foreigners, while Italians made up 8%. Visitors from the US, Israel, Spain, Poland and France also showed up “in large numbers”, the agency said.

At a conference focusing on sports, Ádám Schmidt, the state secretary for sports, said on Wednesday evening that the WAC 2023 Budapest event had by far exceeded expectations. He said that an estimated 1,170,000,000 people watched the championships, the largest sporting event Hungary had ever hosted. There were 14,000 articles written about the event reaching a total of 28,5 billion readers, he said.

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