In October, domestic tourism increased, the number of foreign guests did not rose compared to last year

In October, the number of visitors to tourism accommodation establishments increased slightly year-on-year, but almost a fifth of the guests were missing from the accommodation establishments to reach the values ​​of 2019. The number of foreign visitors, which was almost a quarter lower, lagged behind the numbers of the pre-Covid period.

473 000 guests visited tourist accommodation establishments in Slovakia in October of this year. It was the most favourable October in the last three years, the number of visitors exceeded last year's figures by 5%. However, compared to the tourist-successful year 2019, the hotels and guesthouses in Slovakia lacked more than 100 000 guests. The dynamics of the recovery of tourism from the previous months was thus dampened in October, and the October´s visit rate lagged behind the pre-Covid values by up to 17.5%.

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In the structure of the accommodated guests, domestic visitors had a significant, two-thirds share. Their total number increased by single digits year-on-year to 317 000 accommodated. There was almost no increase in foreign guests compared to last year, and 156 000 foreigners used the accommodation establishments. October confirmed the development trend from the spring months, the return of tourism to favourable numbers was affected only by three-quarters´ visit rate of foreign visitors compared to 2019.

The number of nights that guests spent in hotels and guesthouses during October increased by less than 4% year-on-year to 1.2 million. The average length of stay was 2.4 nights.

From a regional perspective, all regions recorded a higher or comparable total number of visitors year-on-year. In absolute numbers, the highest number of guests was recorded in Bratislavský kraj (116 000), Žilinský kraj (100 000) and Prešovský kraj (88 000). These three regions represented more than 60% of the total number of the accommodated in the SR.

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After periods of more dynamic return of foreign guests, the development of October´s visit rate was mainly due to domestic tourism. In three of the eight regions, the year-on-year number of domestic guests increased at a double-digit rate. Compared to last year, there was a slight increase in the number of foreigners only in Trnavský, Košický and Trenčiansky kraj. The tourism accommodation establishments in some regions, especially in Nitriansky kraj lacked up to 40% of foreign guests, until the record attendance numbers of 2019. On the contrary, the number of foreigners accommodated in Žilinský kraj approached the pre-pandemic values.

In total, for the first ten months of 2023, almost 5 million guests were accommodated in tourism establishments. In a year-on-year comparison, this is an increase by 20%, a tenth of the total visit rate was missing from the values of 2019. During the ten months, the number of foreign guests accommodated in Slovakia was higher by 34% than last year, and the number of domestic tourists rose by 13%.