Hungary is now building 40 new hotels, 14,000 private accommodations

Péter Szijjártó, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, on Thursday praised the Hungarian tourism sector’s recovery from the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Global tourist numbers fell by 73 percent over the course of a year and revenues were cut in half because of the pandemic, Szijjártó said at the opening of a tourism exhibition.

The government saw this as an opportunity to develop the tourism industry, spending more than 800 billion forints (EUR 2.1bn) on the sector in the first year of the pandemic, the minister said.

Hungary is now building 40 new hotels, 14,000 private accommodations, and close to 600 guest houses,

he said, adding that 114 beaches and water parks were being renovated.

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The government’s 90 billion forint tourism development programme in the countryside generated 29 million guest nights by 9.4 million tourists in 2021, Szijjártó said.

“This was a new record which led to the domestic tourism sector enjoying its strongest ever summer season last year,” he said.