Results for 1999
Results for 1999
Last year, the development of Hungarian tourism was strongly influenced by the negative aftermath of the Kosovo war; the dynamic growth observed during the first three months of the year came to a halt, in particular, the foreign currency spending figures manifested a sharp temporary drop. The preliminary professional estimates issued in May 1999 predicted a corresponding deficit – implicit in the decline – of $500 million to $1 billion. The Deputy State Secretary of the Ministry of Economy and his staff worked out and implemented a package to neutralize the devastating effects of the crisis. As a result of this crisis management, by the last four months of the year, the foreign currency income of 1999 – expressed in DEM – showed a weak growth trend relative to 1998.
The working group summoned by the Ministry of Economics – consulting, and working in close cooperation, with the Hungarian Hotels Association (Magyar Szállodaszövetség), the Association of Hungarian Travel Agencies (Magyar Utazási Irodák Szövetsége) and the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Economy (Magyar Kereskedelmi és Iparkamara) – introduced the following measures:
– As a result of a certain reorganization of the resources in the 1999 marketing budget, a dynamic advertisement campaign was launched targeted in the first place at making Lake Balaton popular in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Southern Sweden.
– An advertising program titled “Lake Balaton: A Paradise for Children” and delivering the same message was run in Austria, complemented by a one-month poster campaign, which covered the entire Vienna public transport network and promoted the Lake as a holiday resort area.
– Professional press conferences were held in Germany, and a number of journals and newspapers published ads, in particular about Lake Balaton.
Due to the measures outlined above, and the coordinated work of the tourism industry, the sector succeeded in keeping the number of visitors (2.746 million in 1999), the number of guest nights of foreigners spent at commercial lodging places (9.778 million) close to the previous, 1998 level. The mean time spent by foreign tourists in Hungary (3.6 days) also increased slightly.
In 1999, the following centrally initiated actions assisted the promotion of the development of domestic tourism, encouraging the creation of employment possibilities, regional development and recovery:
– An advertising campaign backed by tens of millions was launched in most of the county daily newspapers and in certain leading national dailies to promote domestic holiday-making;
– Under the auspices of Hungarian Tourism Co. Ltd., and with the participation of Hungarian Hotels Association, a program book containing domestic holiday ideas was published. The need for such a publication issued in 100,000 copies is well-demonstrated by the fact that instead of the originally planned 32, the leaflet actually contained 62 pages;
– The effect is directly observable, but one can also mention here that due to intensive professional lobbying, and as a supplementary result of the Day of Tourism held in the Parliament on 13 October 1999, it was possible to raise the tax-exempt limit of domestic holiday coupons from the previous HUF 10,000 limit up to HUF 20,000 in 2000, which also indicates the premium attached to domestic tourism by professionals and the public.
Thanks to the measures introduced, the broadening of choice, and the increase of available purchasing power of the Hungarian population, the number of domestic guests at commercial lodging places (2.659 million in 1999) rose by more than 5% with respect to the previous year, while the number of guest-nights (7.067 million) increased by almost 6%, and the average staying time (2.6 days) also increased slightly. It can be stated that – perhaps for the first time in the history of modern day Hungarian tourism – domestic tourism moved into the professional and political spotlight, and through its impetus and encouraging effect greatly helped the entire tourism sector to achieve the results it had in 1999.
With respect to the (synthetic) indicator perhaps best showing the performance of tourism – the time record of foreign currency incomes – , the year of 1999 showed a peculiar behavior due to the direct and indirect effects of the Serbian crisis cited above: subsequent to the 4% increase of the first quarter, a sharp drop of 10% was witnessed in the second quarter. In the third quarter, as a consequence of the joint efforts of governmental tourism management and the profession the decline slowed down, then a new increase in income was observed in the fourth quarter. The balance of these processes generated an annual revenue of $3.4 billion (fairly close to that of the previous year), actually representing a 1% growth when expressed in German marks (DEM 6.2 billion).
In 1999, commercial lodging places registered a 11% increase of guest night spending with respect of the previous year, cca. HUF 72 billion altogether. 57% (11%) of the total income was generated in the Budapest (Lake Balaton) area. The income of five-star hotels increased by more than 30%, which is above the average, but youth hostels and guest houses also performed way above the average.
Nearly 80% of the income was generated by foreign guests, but the spectacular comeback of domestic demand is clearly demonstrated by the fact that the income of five-star (four-star) hotels generated by domestic guests increased by 74% (90%). It is worth noting that the income of horeca units operated by commercial lodging places amounted to a total of HUF 29 billion in 1999.
