Despite a slight recovery, the share of tourism in the performance of the economy also decreased in the second year of the pandemic

In 2021, the tourism industries accounted for 1.41% of Slovakia's gross domestic product, while in the tourism record year of 2019, they accounted for 2.86% of the performance of the Slovak economy. In the two Covid-19 years, the tourism industry has lost a tenth of its employed people.

Tourism faced extensive restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic and thus became one of the most affected sectors of the economy. Despite the slight year-on-year improvement in the situation in selected tourism industries, the year 2021 was still significantly affected by the pandemic. The Statistical Office of the SR publishes the Tourism Satellite Account for the year 2021, which comprehensively summarizes a contribution of the tourism industry across the economy of the SR.

In 2021, the tourism industries (CR) produced a total value of almost EUR 8.6 billion.  It is a summary of the production of characteristic tourism industries that are internationally comparable, as well as country-specific tourism industries in the SR. Compared to 2020, this is a 9% increase in the production, but compared to the pre-Covid, tourism record year of 2019, production was still lower by 16%.

Direct gross added value, which is directly related to tourism, also recorded a decrease in 2021, when it reached EUR 1.1 billion. In a year-on-year comparison, it was lower by EUR 19 million (by 2%) and compared to 2019, it was still only half the value. Regarding the individual sectors of the tourism industry, passenger transport, accommodation and food and beverage service activities, and cultural activities contributed the most to the creation of added value.

Direct gross domestic product (GDP) of tourism reached a value of EUR 1.4 billion in 2021 with a year-on-year growth of 6%. Despite this, the share in the performance of Slovakia's economy declined to 1.41%. Thus, the share of tourism in the overall performance of the economy decreased to its historically lowest value in 2021. In the first year of the pandemic (in 2020), it represented 1.45%. In the period before the pandemic - in the tourism record year 2019, tourism accounted for 2.86% of the performance of the entire economy.

Over 19,000 people lost their jobs in the tourism industry in two years of the pandemic

The number of persons employed in the tourism industry also decreased year-on-year in 2021, by another 3.6% (6.3 thousand people) to 167 thousand people. In the first year of the pandemic, up to 13,000 people working in the tourism industry left.

In 2021, the highest number of employed persons worked in food and beverage service activities and in passenger transport. The highest number of persons lost their jobs for the second year already in food and beverage service activities and in sports and recreational services. Of the total number of employed persons, 84.8% were employees and the rest were entrepreneurs.

Total expenditures in the tourism industry increased by more than a fifth year-on-year

During the second year of the pandemic, participants of tourism, i.e. Slovaks and foreigners staying in the SR, as well as Slovak citizens traveling abroad, spent EUR 2.6 billion. It was only 38% of expenditures compared to the pre-Covid year 2019, when tourism participants spent almost EUR 6.8 billion. Among the three components of tourism's domestic consumption, domestic tourism expenditure accounted for the largest part (EUR 1.4 billion). These are the expenses of domestic visitors who travelled around Slovakia. Their year-on-year growth was at the level of almost 13%. The highest, almost double year-on-year growth, was represented by the expenditure of Slovak tourists traveling abroad.

Pandemic measures and restrictions on travel to and from abroad continued in 2021. However, they only affected the expenditure of foreign tourists (inbound tourism), which fell by more than 2% compared to 2020.

In addition to purchases of different goods (other consumer products that are not typical for tourism, e.g. food, clothing), the largest part of the expenditure of visitors on the territory of the SR (domestic and foreign visitors) was directed to payments for food and beverage service activities (22.4%) and accommodation services (19%).

Three quarters of all trips in Slovakia were one-day trips

The total number of personal and business trips within domestic, inbound and outbound tourism reached a value of almost 33 million and increased by 11% year-on-year. In Slovakia, domestic visitors and foreigners made a total of 30.2 million trips, which was just under half of the trips that took place during 2019. Almost 80% of trips in Slovakia were made by domestic overnight visitors, while three quarters of them were one-day trips and the rest were stays with accommodation. Slovak visitors spent a total of 19.7 million nights in rented and non-rented accommodation on the territory of the SR.

A fifth of the trips in Slovakia were made by foreign visitors, which represents 6.3 million trips. The year-on-year increase in trips was only minimal (0.3%), as the number of foreign overnight tourists decreased year-on-year (up to 20%), and on the contrary, the number of same-day visitors increased. Compared to 2019, the number of trips to Slovakia made by foreign visitors decreased by 10 million. One-day visits (73%) also dominated in the trips of foreigners. Overnight stays were made by 1.7 million foreigners who spent 5.2 million nights in the SR.

Slovaks travelled abroad more often, mainly for overnight stays

As part of the outbound tourism, the Slovaks realized a total of 2.75 million trips abroad, this is a little more than a quarter of the number of visitors compared to the pre-Covid year 2019. Compared to 2020, however, 760,000 more visitors travelled abroad. Multi-day trips with overnight stays dominated, accounting for up to 64% of the number of trips abroad. Every third trip was one-day trip.

The product of the Statistical Office of the SR The Tourism Satellite Account 2021 includes:

• Expanded Informative report
• Data set in 21 detailed tables with data for 2021 and previous years from 2013