The number of foreign visitors in Hungary was up 2.7pc at 40.62m in 2009, while the number of Hungarians travelling abroad fell 3.0pc to 16.90m, the Central Statistics Office (KSH) said on Monday.
The number of foreign visitors to Hungary rose 0.3pc in the fourth quarter of 2009 from the same period of last year to 8.61m. The number of Hungarians travelling abroad fell 5.7pc to 3.72m in the period.
Hungary’s tourism surplus rose almost 18.2pc to HUF 429bn in 2009 as spending by foreign tourists (tourism exports) rose 10.4pc to HUF 1.201bn and Hungarians spending abroad rose 6.5pc in forint terms to 777bn. HUF 820bn or 68pc of the amount spent by foreign visitors in Hungary was related to tourism consumption. Of tourism imports, HUF 438bn or 57pc was related to tourism.
Hungary’s tourism surplus was HUF 105bn in the fourth quarter, up 4pc from the same period of 2008, resulting from tourism exports of HUF 263bn and imports of HUF 158 bn.
Spending by foreign tourists in Hungary exports fell 3.3pc yr/yr in Q4 in the first drop experienced since 2007, and Q4 spending by Hungarians abroad was down 7.6pc, dropping for the second quarter in a row after increases since 2006, the year of the previous fiscal tightening.
The forint-term increase was boosted by the weakening of the forint which fell 12pc in the full-year. The forint weakened on average 3pc against the euro in Q4 2009 from the same period of the previous year, and was on average 12pc in 2009 than in 2008.
The average length of stay for foreign visitors in Hungary was 2.4 days both in Q4 and in 2009, both slightly down from 2.5 in Q3 and in 2008.
Foreign visitors, spending more than one day in Hungary, made up 24pc of all visitors in Q4 and 22pc of the total for the full year, coming in the largest numbers from Germany and Austria, and they spent on average 7.2 days in Hungary.
Those spending several days in Hungary spent 45pc of all expenditure on accomodation and catering 8pc of food, 12pc on other products and 7pc on other services, KSH said.
12.7m of the all foreign visitors arrived with the aim of tourism, and only 68pc of them spent more than one days in the country.
Hungarian travellers stayed on average 4.5 days abroad in the fourth quarter, less than 5.1 days in Q3 or in Q4 2008, and also down from 4.8 days in 2008.
33pc of Hungarian visitors were one-day visitors, and half of them went on shopping tours. Tourism was the motive in the case of 29pc one-day visits and in 81pc of longer trips. Official trips made up 17pc of one-day travels and 16pc of several-day visits of Hungarians abroad.