The number of visitors to hotels and guesthouses increased only slightly, both domestic and foreign visitors rose

In June, the number of visitors to Slovakia's hotels and guesthouses increased by 2% year-on-year, but almost a tenth of visitors were still missing from the pre-pandemic values. The best values were recorded in Košický kraj year-on-year. Record values of the number visitors from 2019 were surpassed only by Trnavský kraj.

In June 2024, 554,000 people spent at least one night in hotels, guesthouses, spas and other accommodation establishments in Slovakia, which was by 2% more than in the same period last year. To reach the tourist success of 2019, accommodation providers still lacked 9.2% (56 thousand) guests. Visitors spent almost 1.4 million nights in tourism establishments, which was by 1.5% more than a year ago. The average length of stay was 2.5 nights.

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Almost two-thirds of those accommodated, i.e. 352,000 people, were domestic visitors. Their total number increased slightly compared to last year and reached similar values as in June before the pandemic. Only 4% of domestic visitors were missing. Foreign visitors during the sixth month also increased slightly, by 3% year-on-year and reached 202,000. Compared to the record values from June 2019, however, up to 17% of foreign visitors were missing.

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Development of tourism in the regions of SR

From a regional point of view, the number of visitors was comparable or higher year-on-year in all regions of Slovakia. The number of visitors increased in 5 out of 8 regions, up to 4% in most of them. The only exception was Košický kraj, increasing of more than 11%. Compared to pre-Covid June 2019, the number of visitors lagged behind in almost all regions, the most in Nitriansky kraj (by 22%) and the least in Žilinský kraj (by 2%). The record values of the successful year 2019 were surpassed only by Trnavský kraj, by almost 3%, supported by the start of the summer spa season.

The most visited region of the SR during the sixth month of 2024 was Bratislavský kraj, where more than 134 guests stayed overnight. It is the only region in Slovakia where the number of foreign visitors was higher in the long-term, six out of ten visitors in June were from abroad. In total, up to 40% of foreign visitors who paid for accommodation in Slovakia in June stayed in this region. Žilinský kraj (almost 108,000 visitors), Prešovský kraj (almost 93,000 guests) and Banskobystrický kraj (more than 60,000 visitors) followed in the ranking of regions. These three regions managed to attract almost half (47%) of all overnight guests in the country, of which almost three quarters were domestic visitors.

Summary for the first half of 2024

In total, in the first six months of 2024, 2.6 million visitors were accommodated in tourism establishments. It was a year-on-year increase of almost 3%, while the number of foreign visitors grew more dynamically than domestic ones. Compared to the first half of 2019, 8% of guests were missing, especially the numbers of foreign visitors.

Development of turnover and capacities of accommodation establishments in the 2nd quarter of 2024

Accommodation establishments in the second quarter of 2024 reached a total of EUR 138 million in turnover (without VAT), which was an increase of more than 5% year-on-year. The majority, almost 60%, was represented by domestic visitors. Among the regions, the highest turnover were recorded in Bratislavský, Prešovský and Žilinský kraj, these three regions accounted for almost two thirds of the turnover in the Slovak Republic. In all regions, however, more than half of the turnover was represented by domestic visitors, only in Bratislavský kraj there were foreigners (68% of turnover). Turnover of foreign visitors rose more dynamically than turnover of domestic visitors.

In general, a total of 4,853 accommodation establishments provided accommodation services in Slovakia in the second quarter. 71,000 bedrooms and 200,000 bed places (including camping places) were available to visitors. Net occupancy rate of permanent bed places reached 26.3%, net occupancy rate of bedrooms 32.6%. On average, 63,000 bedrooms and 146,000 permanent bed places were available in one day.