Accommodation providers started the holidays with the third best monthly number of visitors since the beginning of the pandemic

The first holiday month brought more than 675,000 visitors to accommodation establishments in Slovakia, which was more than a year ago. Accommodation providers thus recorded the best July and the third best monthly number of visitors since the beginning of 2020, when the pandemic caused a slump in the tourism industry. 6 out of 8 regions were better off year-on-year, but the number of domestic guests increased in all regions.

In July, 675,000 guests spent at least one night in hotels, guesthouses and other accommodation establishments in Slovakia, which was by 2.1% more than in the same period last year. In July, it was the highest number of visitors in the last 5 years, i.e. since the period when the entire tourism industry was significantly affected by anti-covid measures. To reach the historically most successful year in 2019, only 5% (37,000) visitors were missing according to accommodation providers. During July, guests spent more than 2 million nights in tourism establishments with an average stay of 3 nights.

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Almost two-thirds of those accommodated, i.e. 412,000 people, were domestic visitors. Their total number rose by 4% year-on-year, and this value was already approaching the pre-Covid level of the successful year of 2019 in tourism industry. The number of foreign visitors, on the other hand, slightly decreased year-on-year (by 1.3%) and reached 263,000 guests. The number of foreigners in hotels and guesthouses continued to lag behind the values from 2019 significantly, by up to 11%.

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Development of tourism in the regions of Slovakia

The first holiday month brought accommodation providers a year-on-year increase in the number of visitors in 6 out of 8 regions of Slovakia, up to 7%. The exception was the regions being most active in tourism, Žilinský kraj and Prešovský kraj, with a slight year-on-year decrease in the total number of accommodated guests. Domestic visitors particularly increased in all regions in a year-on-year comparison, the largest growth of up to 11% was recorded in Bratislavský kraj. At the same time, hotels and guesthouses in this region achieved the record total number of visitors since the pandemic.

In July, the most visited region of the SR was Žilinský kraj, with 151,000 guests spending the night in accommodation establishments on its territory. Similar to last year, in July of this year it also exceeded the values before the pandemic (from 2019). In general, it attracted a quarter of domestic and 20% of foreign guests of Slovakia due to its mountain tourism possibilities.

In the ranking of regional number of visitors, the following regions followed: Bratislavský kraj (almost 144,000 visitors), Prešovský kraj (more than 116,000 visitors) and Banskobystrický kraj (almost 73,000 guests).

Development for 7 months of 2024

In total, in the first seven months of 2024, 3.3 million visitors were accommodated in tourism establishments, which was by 2.4% more than in the same period last year. While the number of foreign guests increased by 3.3%, domestic guests increased by almost 2% year-on-year. The total number of visitors remained below the level of 2019 values, 7% of visitors were still missing for the period January-July.