UPDATE - Hungary guest nights down 10.1% yr/yr in August

Guest nights at commercial accommodations in Hungary fell 10.1% year-on-year to 3,002,000 in August after declining 5.9% in July, the Central Statistics Office (KSH) said on Friday.

Guest nights spent by foreigners fell 8.7% to 1,390,000. Germans accounted for 295,674 of these nights.

Guest nights spent by Hungarians fell 11.3% to 1,613,000.

Guest nights in January-August fell 2.1% from a year earlier to 13,789,000, with foreign guest nights rising 1.2% to 6,821,000 and domestic guest nights dropping 5.1% to 6,967,000 in the period.

Hotels accounted for 1,949,000 or 65% of all guest nights in August; the rate was 73% in January-August. The occupancy rate at hotels was 60.4% in August and was 46.8% in the first eight months.

The number of guests at commercial accommodations was 1,036,000 in August and 5,234,000 in the first eight months of the year, down 5.3% and up 0.4%, respectively.

The number of foreign guests totaled 475,000 in August, down 3.3% yr/yr, and reached 2,462,000 in January-August, up 4.3%.

The number of domestic guests was 562,000 in August, down 7.0% yr/yr, and totaled 2,772,000 in January-August, down 2.8% from a year earlier.

Total gross revenue of public accommodations came to HUF 27.73bn in August, down 8.0% from the same month a year earlier after falling 3.8% yr/yr in the previous month.

In January-August, total gross revenue of public accommodations came to HUF 161.112bn, with revenue from accommodation fees accounting for 89.838bn. 88% of accommodation fees came from hotels.

The gross average room rate at hotels in Hungary was HUF 13,407 per night in August and was HUF 13,929 in January-August. Gross revenue per available room (REVPAR) was HUF 8,092 in August alone and averaged HUF 6,512 in the first eight months.