Foreign citizens crossed the Hungarian border on 18.9 million occasions in the third quarter, an increase of 5.1% in one year, national news agency MTI cited the KSH as saying.
Foreign visitors spent HUF 626 billion in Hungary in the third quarter, 6.3% more than in Q3 2016.
The number of tourist trips rose by 7.6% from Q3 2016, while the number of other trips rose by 3.5%.
The number of arrivals from abroad for just one day rose by 4.6%, while the number of trips lasting several days rose 6.5% from Q3 2016.
One-day trips made up 72% of all arrivals from abroad, slightly less than a year earlier, while 53% of arrivals were transits. Some 19% of one-day trips were for tourism purposes, 21% were for shopping, and just 5% were made on business.
Trips of several days lasted on average 5.9 days in Q3, the same as a year earlier, and tourism was the motivation in 92% of these cases.
Spending related to one-day arrivals rose 3.9% in one year to HUF 143 bln, while spending on longer stays was up 7% at HUF 484 bln. Average spending per head per day rose 1% to HUF 14,000.
Nearly four-fifths of all Q3 spending by foreigners was by visitors from Europe, more than 10% by Americans, and 7% by Asians. The money spent rose 3.4%, 6.2% and 1.7%, respectively.
At the same time, the number of trips abroad by Hungarians rose 10.2% to 6.1 mln in Q3, while spending rose 11.3% to HUF 279 bln compared to one year earlier.
Some 60% of Hungariansʼ travels abroad were for one day, a proportion that rose from 58% one year earlier. The average stay abroad on longer trips rose, however, from 6.5 days to 6.8 days. Tourism motivated over one third of one-day trips by Hungarians and 92% of longer ones.
Hungariansʼ spending on one-day foreign trips rose 18.1% to HUF 43 bln, while their spending on longer trips was up 10.2% at HUF 236 bln. Spending per head per day rose 2.1% to HUF 11,800 for one-day visits, and rose 1.6% to HUF 14,300 per day for longer ones.
One-day trips led Hungarians mostly to neighboring countries, with Austria and Slovakia accounting for 78% of the total. Another European Union country was the destination in almost 90% of longer visits, and here trips to Italy were up 24%, to Austria by 20%, and to Spain by more than 50%.
Tourism generated a HUF 347 bln surplus in the third quarter, 2.5% more than one year earlier. As the forint strengthened 1.5% to the euro in the period, the surplus was equal to EUR 1.134 bln.
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