Brutal increase: holiday prices at Lake Balaton rivalling seaside destinations

Spending holidays at Lake Balaton is just as expensive as going to the Adriatic Sea. However, the price increase for accommodation goes hand in hand with the increased cost of international travel.

Lake Balaton is a popular holiday destination in Central Europe. However, the recent changes in world economics affected tourism around the lake as well. Gyula Almásy, director of Világjáró Magazin tells napi.hu that the cost of holidays at Lake Balaton went through the roof.

Recently we have written about the ever-increasing prices at the rental market around Lake Balaton. The development of the rental market has had a knock-on effect on the prices of accommodations at the lake.

Cheaper apartment rooms and holidays become much more expensive around Lake Balaton. Now Almásy claims that there is no significant price difference anymore between prices at Lake Balaton when compared to a few-day apartment stay in a more remote coastal destination.

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Pénzcentrum.hu also calculates that Hungary can expect a good domestic tourist season, even a record year, but everyone faces major price rises in 2023. That means Hungary won’t have a price advantage compared to less popular tourist destinations on the Adriatic Sea, such as Albania.

Foreign visitors are still crucial for the Hungarian economy. According to the Central Statistical Office, in December 2022, 52 percent of overnight stays were booked by international travellers.

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The race for Hungarian tourists

At the same time, Hungarian guests are getting more and more important to other tourist destinations. Almásy says that Hungarian guests are very important for Croatians, as Hungarian visitors account for hundreds of thousands of overnight stays every year.

The expert reckons that Slovakia, Turkey, Greece and Tunisia are also putting a strong focus on Hungarian guests. Recently Spain has also made significant improvements by making airports in 13 different cities accessible and providing flights to encourage more vacationers from Hungary to spend their holidays there.

Source: napi.hu, penzcentrum.hu