Hotel and guesthouse visit rate in March approached record levels, once again driven by foreign visitors

The first spring month brought accommodation establishments more guests year-on-year, though figures remained slightly below the pre-pandemic March 2019 level. The record March number of foreign visitors was driven mainly by Czech tourists. Regionally, 5 out of the 8 SR regions, recorded year-on-year growth, while Bratislavský and Košický kraj exceeded record numbers of both domestic and foreign visitors.

In the third month of the year, tourist accommodation establishments in Slovakia were visited by 432 thousand guests, which was 6.5% more than in the corresponding period last year. Compared with March 2019, the most successful March for tourism, accommodation providers recorded lower visitor number by only 0.4%, i.e. fewer than 2 thousand accommodated guests.

Domestic visitors still represent nearly two-thirds of the structure of accommodated guests, with their number increasing year-on-year to almost 266 thousand guests. This represented a year-on-year increase of 1%. Compared with the most successful March 2019, the figures remained 5% lower. Foreign visit rate rose by 16% year-on-year, with the number of foreign guests reaching almost 167 thousand accommodated guests. This was the highest level of foreign visit rate, exceeding the record from March 2019 by as much as 7%. Currently, nearly 51 thousand guests from this country visited Slovakia, representing 30% of all foreign visitors to the Slovak Republic in March. They were followed by visitors from Poland (23 thousand visitors).

Number of overnight stays in accommodation establishments in the Slovak Republic

Guests spent 1.1 million overnight stays recorded in March, which was 4.5% more nights in hotels and guesthouses in Slovakia year-on-year. The share of foreign visitors was 35%. With nearly 373 thousand overnight stays, this was historically the second highest number of March overnight stays by foreign visitors, remaining only 2% below the more successful travel period of March 2019. The first spring month also brought a slight year-on-year drop in the number of overnight stays by domestic guests, to nearly 693 thousand. Compared with the record levels of 2019, the gap remained more significant, with the number of overnight stays by guests from Slovakia lower by 12.5%.

The average length of stay in March 2026 was 2.5 nights.

Development of tourism in the SR regions

From a regional perspective, in March this year 5 of the 8 SR regions managed to exceed the year-on-year number of visitors, ranging from 3.2% in Trnavský kraj to 15.9% in Bratislavský kraj. Prešovský, Nitriansky and Banskobystrický kraj recorded fewer accommodated guests than in March of the previous year.

In absolute terms, Bratislavský kraj reporded the highest number of visitors, with almost 116 thousand guests, followed by regions known for winter tourism, namely Žilinský kraj (101 thousand guests) and Prešovský kraj (69 thousand guests). Altogether, these three regions represented two-thirds of the Slovak Republic’s total visitor arrivals in March this year. Bratislavský kraj remained the only SR region where foreign visitors formed the majority of accommodated guests. Bratislavský and Košický kraj currently exceeded their own records in the number of accommodated visitors in March, both domestic and foreign.

Summary for the 1st quarter of 2026

In total for the first three months of 2026, almost 1.4 million guests were accommodated in tourism accommodation establishments. This represented a year-on-year increase of 9.2%. Compared with the corresponding period of the most successful pre-pandemic year (2019), the current quarterly visitor numbers were higher by one tenth. This result was mainly driven by the very successful winter months of this year. The number of foreign guests rose year-on-year at a faster pace, by as much as 16%. Domestic tourism recorded a 5% increase.