Around 178,000 guests were accommodated in the capital’s lodgings during the Sziget Festival, which took place between 7 and 12 August. According to data from the National Tourism Data Supply Centre (NTDSC), a total of 336,000 guests were registered at the capital’s accommodations, a 10 per cent increase compared to last year’s event, the Hungarian Tourism Agency (MTÜ) announced on Tuesday.
The interest from foreign visitors was particularly notable, with 20 per cent more arrivals and 10 per cent more nights spent in Budapest compared to the previous year’s festival.
They highlighted that compared to the week before the Sziget Festival, the economic and tourism-related benefits of the event are even more apparent: the number of guests in the capital increased by a quarter, while
the revenues of accommodation providers exceeded the previous week’s figures by more than a third.
During the summer’s largest music festival, approximately 160,000 foreign guests arrived, spending 10 per cent more nights in Budapest than during last year’s event. Among foreign travellers, the most visitors once again came from the Netherlands, followed by Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Spain, according to the MTÜ.
During the festival, nearly 10 per cent of the tourists staying in the capital were domestic visitors, of whom about 14 per cent were from Budapest itself. Following them, most domestic visitors to the capital’s accommodations came from Debrecen, Miskolc, Szeged, Pécs, and Nyíregyháza.
According to the statement, the Sziget Festival had a rejuvenating effect on the city’s visitor demographic: 59 per cent of the tourists staying in Budapest during the festival were under 34 years old. Among them, the largest age group was the 25–34 year-olds, accounting for 29 per cent, followed by 20 per cent aged between 19–24, and 10 per cent under 18 years old.
NTDSC data also show that in District III, which hosted the event, accommodation providers registered 18 times more foreign guests than in the previous week, with a 2 per cent increase compared to last year’s festival.
Thanks to the heightened interest, partly due to the Sziget Festival, the capital’s accommodation revenues also performed well during these days,
totalling around 7.9 billion forints, a 37 per cent increase compared to the same period of the previous week.
Based on the data, the most visited attractions in the capital during the festival were the area around the Parliament, Margaret Island, St Stephen’s Basilica, the Széchenyi Thermal Bath and Swimming Pool, as well as the Great Market Hall and its surroundings, the MTÜ added.
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