The most popular spots in Hungary for New Year’s Eve

Where else would you celebrate New Year’s Eve than in Hungary? Find the most well-liked spots below!

New Year’s Eve is always a huge deal. There’s champagne and good luck wishes and fireworks all around. Starting the new year right is extremely important. Let’s see where the most liked spots are in Hungary for welcoming the new year and saying goodbye to the old one.

Visitors from abroad

Not only Hungarians celebrate the New Year here, of course people from all around the world are planning to step into the next year in Hungary. According to the National Tourism Data Center, out of the bookings for Hungary, Budapest is the most popular, with 72% of tourists staying in the capital. This is a high number, even considering last year’s statistics.

Most tourists in this period are from Italy, Spain and Germany, but there are also bookings made by UK citizens. Those who come from abroad and wish to spend their New Year’s Eve in the Hungarian countryside booked 47 thousand guest nights all together. All in all, bookings made by foreigners were up by a staggering 13% compared to last year.

Hungarian trends

When looking at Hungarians spending their New Year’s Eve, we can say that there has been a trend of booking in the countryside. Hungarians have booked 77% of the rural overnight stays, turizmus.hu writes. In actual numbers, that’s 160 thousand nights! Among the countryside destinations, the most popular were naturally the Lake Balaton area and the Mátra-Bükk region. Especially Bük-Sárvár and Mátra-Bük, which have seen significant traffic in bookings this year. When looking at cities, the most booked among Hungarians were Eger, Gyula, Szeged, Pécs and not surprisingly Budapest.

Interesting statistics

No one will be shocked when we say that in the holiday season, the first bookings that fill up are the New Year’s Eve nights. Several hotels have reported full occupancy by the end of November for this night. Most people consider aspects when booking such as wellness offers, New Year’s Eve farewell packages, and festive activity programmes. The average price for a night as special as this is HUF 15,000 or EUR 40.

Hopeful projections for the New Year

Based on the bookings made this year, projections for the future are already in the making. What can we expect?
Tamás Szabó, the Director responsible for Hungary and Croatia at Szallas.hu, explained in an announcement that hopefully, the economy will strengthen and this will bring an improvement in the hospitality sector.

The revival of domestic tourism will likely be aided by the fact that from 1 January 2024, the SZÉP card will be restricted again. This means it can only be used for accommodation and catering from then on. This is much needed because international travel has already resumed after the COVID-19 pandemic. While this international trend is likely to continue next year, it may not strengthen further. This means the SZÉP card restriction is an added bonus to the sector from Hungarians.

Read more about expected projections for the next year HERE.

Read more about New Year’s Eve bookings HERE.