Tourists enjoy the view of the city in Budapest, Hungary, Feb. 13, 2019. Hungary attracted a record number of foreign visitors last year, 650,000 more than in 2017, according to official sources here late Tuesday. (Xinhua/Attila Volgyi)
BUDAPEST, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- Hungary attracted a record number of foreign visitors last year, 650,000 more than in 2017, according to official sources here late Tuesday.
"The number of tourism nights spent in commercial accommodations in 2018 went up by 1 million to close to 31 million compared to 2017," Zoltan Guller, director general of the Hungarian Tourism Agency (MTU) said in statement, commenting on the most recent data published by the Hungarian Central Statistical Office KSH.
The number of tourists from the United States, Romania and the Czech Republic, among the top 10 countries of origin, increased dynamically. And arrivals from China increased by over 10 percent, Guller said.
"Commercial accommodation establishments registered a total of 12.5 million arrivals and 30.9 million tourism nights, up 5.2 percent and 3.8 percent respectively. Foreign guests spent 2.4 percent more (15.3 million) and domestic guests 5.3 percent more (15.6 million) nights," KSH detailed, in a comparison of 2018 figures with those of 2017.
Tourism and the catering industry accounted for over 10 percent of Hungary's GDP last year.
