The first six months saw 485,000 people visiting Balaton (slightly more than a year before), 75% of whom were Hungarian. The number of guest nights spent by foreigners dropped 2.9%. 78% of all the guest nights were registered in hotels, mainly in 3- and 4-star facilities. In 5-star hotels tourists spent 45,000 nights. 40% of all and nearly 50% of foreigners’ guest nights were spent in wellness and medicinal hotels in Zala county.

The shore stretches in Zala and Somogy counties hosted fewer while Veszprém county more foreigners than last year. The majority of foreigners are still from Austria and Germany, but their numbers dropped about 18% from last year. On the other hand, Denmark sent twice as many visitors and the number of those arriving from the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Ukraine and the US grew 50% y/y. (Napi Gazdaság)