Hungarian tourism could reach full recovery by spring

International real estate services and investment company CBRE expects Hungarian tourism to recover from the COVID-19 crisis by the spring of 2022. While domestic tourism remains strong in the rural regions, tourism in the capital may be the first to recover in the region due to its new, high-quality hotels.

According to CBRE expert Laurent Lassier, with the introduction of the international vaccine passport, tourism could reach pre-pandemic levels by next spring.

Hotel market analysis

The tourism and hotel sector was among the first to be hit by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. However, data from the summer period indicates a positive trend in the domestic hotel market.

Hotel occupancy rates are already at 90−95% of pre-pandemic levels, and revenues have increased 10-12 per cent in parallel with the average price of rooms,

writes Turizmus Online.

Domestic tourism was strong in the spring and summer months, which proved to be dominant mainly in rural areas where hotels also reached the pre-coronavirus level. The most popular destinations were Lake Balaton, the Tokaj wine region, and Hajdú-Bihar county.

European Football Championship

Contrary to the levels observed in the rural hotel market, Budapest’s tourism shows a different trend.

Since almost 95% of the capital’s market operates with an international clientele, the recovery there is much slower than in the countryside.

In June, for example, hotel occupancy in Budapest increased to 24% in a year. This is a significant improvement compared to 2020 when the occupancy rate was just over 5%, but still significantly lower than the pre-pandemic rate, which was well over 80%, explains Világgazdaság. The statistics also have to take into consideration that some hotels did not open immediately after the restrictions were lifted.

According to CBRE research,

the European Football Championship gave a significant boost to international tourism. In addition to the fans of the national teams featured in the championship, such as France, Germany, and Portugal, a great number of Western European tourists came to the Hungarian capital in June.

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In the case of individual tourism, visitors mostly booked rooms for long weekends and periods of 2 or 3 days instead of the usual one- or several-week vacations.

The positive trend seemed to continue at the beginning of autumn. As we reported, the number of guest nights spent in Hungarian commercial accommodations in September increased by an annual 65% and was up 4% compared to 2019.

Border opening

The recovery of tourism in the region was also hindered by the lack of consistent communication between European countries concerning opening the borders. Nonetheless, European airlines tried to provide as much up-to-date information to their passengers as possible since they had a direct interest in boosting tourism. They also launched targeted flights between countries that have concluded bilateral or multilateral agreements on the acceptance of immunity certificates.

New hotels

Many top-quality new hotels opened in the capital this summer. Accordingly, the average price of hotel rooms in Budapest is constantly increasing and is currently at the level of average prices in Barcelona and Lisbon.