The strongest month of this year attracted more than 700 thousand visitors to hotels and guesthouses in Slovakia

The peak of the holiday season in Slovakia was marked by a year-on-year stagnation in the number of domestic guests and a dynamic growth of the number of foreigners. The number of foreign visitors rose in all regions, though they did not reach the pre-Covid level in any of them. Even the most-visited regions by tourists coped with a slight year-on-year decrease in the number of domestic visitors.

Almost 707 000 guests visited tourist accommodation establishments in Slovakia in the second holiday month, which is only less than 7% more than last year. In the normally strongest period of the year, accommodation providers still lacked 86 000 (11%) visitors to the record visit rate in August 2019. The number of overnight stays that guests spent in hotels, guesthouses and other accommodation establishments in Slovakia reached almost 2.1 million nights. It is approximately more than one tenth than a year ago. The average length of stay was 2.9 nights.

The increase in accommodation indicators is still mainly influenced by the lower comparative base from August 2022, when guests gradually returned to accommodation establishments after the two-year COVID-19 pandemic.

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Traditionally, the majority of the total number of guests were domestic visitors. Their number - 433 000 people (61%) was almost the same compared to last year, and 7% was still missing from the pre-Covid numbers of August 2019, similarly as last year. In as many as five regions of Slovakia, including the most visited ones - Žilinský and Prešovský kraj, accommodation providers recorded a slight year-on-year decrease in the domestic visitors. Only 3 regions managed to attract more guests - Bratislavský, Nitriansky and Banskobystrický kraj. In absolute terms, Žilinský kraj again attracted the most holidaymakers, with up to a quarter of guests staying in its establishments in August.

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In August, 273 000 foreign visitors used accommodation services in Slovakia, which was by a 19% year-on-year increase in the visit rate. Their number increased significantly year-on-year in all regions, but this is only due to the return of foreigners after the pandemic. Compared to 2019, 16% fewer foreigners spent their holidays in Slovakia. Žilinský kraj approached the peak of visit rate at that time. In absolute numbers, the most foreigners visited Bratislavský kraj (91 000), Žilinský kraj (60 000) and Prešovský kraj. (49 000 foreign visitors). Together, these three regions represented almost three quarters of the total foreign visitors.

In total, in the first eight months of 2023, 3.9 million guests were accommodated in tourism establishments, which represents a year-on-year increase by almost a quarter. A total of 10% of guests were missing from the total number of visitors in the comparable period of 2019. 14% of foreign tourists and 6.5% of domestic guests were missing from the accommodation providers to reach the values of the record year.