A Sold-Out Weekend for Budapest’s St. Stephen’s Day Program

Fireworks in Budapest on St. Stephen’s Day, the feast of Hungary’s Founding Day, August 20, 2023.

A huge number of people turned out to celebrate the birthday of Hungary last weekend. According to the National Tourism Data Supply Centre (NTDSC), the weekend closed with a full house at the capital’s hotels, with occupancy rates reaching almost 80% – reports turizmus.com.

In Budapest, nearly 70,000 guests spent 128,000 nights between August 18 and 20, 17% more than the previous year. The number of day visitors also increased by almost 30%, with more than one million people visiting the capital for at least one day this year, over the weekend of August 20.

According to data provided by the NTDSC, the majority of accommodation was occupied by foreign visitors, also due to the start of the World Athletics Championships.

Foreign travelers accounted for a significant share of overnight stays, 83%.

The holiday event, which won an ‘Oscar’ in the international events sector in 2022, attracted many more guests from the countryside (+7%) and from outside the country (+19%) than last year.

The majority of domestic tourists to the capital booked hotel accommodations, with almost one in two domestic hotel guests choosing four-star hotels. Only a quarter of our fellow countrymen preferred private and other accommodations. The preference of international visitors was half as much for hotels as for private and other accommodations. More than half of foreign hotel nights were spent in four-star hotels, nearly a third in three-star hotels, and almost a tenth in five-star hotels.

According to mobile phone data, around 1,100,000 day visitors visited the capital over the weekend of August 20.

For the Sunday holiday alone, more than 350,000 people traveled to Budapest, an increase of nearly 70% compared to August 20 last year.

There were thousands more traveling to Budapest for this year’s spectacular show than last year on the day of the fireworks, postponed in 2022, by a week due to adverse and uncertain weather conditions. The highest number of tourists came from Pest, Fejér, and Komárom-Esztergom counties, the latter with one and a half times as many as last year.

Visits to the capital’s attractions also increased by 11% over the three days.

The most popular attractions were the Parliament, the Fisherman’s Bastion, and Margaret Island, with 35% more tourists visiting the latter compared to last year.

The favorite tourist attraction for foreigners was the Parliament building, with international visitors accounting for 14% of visitors over the festive weekend.

The tourist attraction of major events is also demonstrated by the fact that thanks to the increased number of guests, hotels in the capital recorded 24% higher revenues over the three days than this time last year.

Featured image: MTI/Péter Lakatos