Even after four years of struggling with the Covid infection, the Slovak hoteliers did not reach the historical records of visit rate

5.7 million guests stayed in Slovakia during 2023, which was the second highest number in the last 23 years. The most, over 1.3 million visitors, stayed in Bratislavský and Žilina kraj. Only Žilinský kraj approached the record visit rate from 2019.

In December last year, 373,000 guests visited tourist accommodation establishments in Slovakia. Thus, the achieved visit rate exceeded the figures from the identical period of the previous year by almost 13%. However, compared to the touristically successful year 2019, the hotels and guesthouses lacked more than 14% of guests, which in absolute numbers represented more than 61,000 visitors. Guests spent 841,000 nights in hotels and guesthouses, the average length of stay was 2.3 nights.

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In the structure of the accommodated guests, domestic visitors made up almost two-thirds. Their total number increased by more than 12% year-on-year and reached 239 thousand accommodated. The number of foreign guests increased by 13% compared to last year, 134,000 foreigners used accommodation establishments in Slovakia. From a regional perspective, year-on-year visit rate rose in all regions, but only Žilinský kraj exceeded the  values of visit rate from   2019. Foreigners mainly contributed to the new record.

Tourism development for 2023

The number of visitors to tourism establishments in Slovakia rose to 5.7 million for the entire calendar year 2023. The visit rate increased by almost a fifth (by 18.5%) over the year. Slovak hotels, guesthouses and other accommodation establishments achieved the second highest number of visitors in the last 23 years (since the turn of the millennium), since when it is possible to methodically compare current values. In order to reach the values of the most successful year in terms of tourism in 2019, accommodation providers still lacked 11% (707,000) of guests.

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Almost two-thirds (3.6 million guests) of the total visit rate in 2023 were still domestic tourists. The number of domestic visitors increased by double digits year-on-year (by 13%) and the number of the accommodated residents of Slovakia approached the record from 2019 more closely than foreign clientele, lacking only 8% of domestic guests.

The development of tourism during the year 2023 was mainly marked by the trend of the return of foreign clientele, their overall visit rate increased by almost a third for the year, 2.1 million foreigners stayed in the Slovak Republic. However, even this dynamic development could not completely erase the drop in foreign visitors from the previous three years marked by the pandemic, almost 400,000 (16%) foreign guests were missing from the pre-pandemic values.

The development trend characteristic of the entire country was also manifested at the regional level, in all eight regions the total number of accommodated persons rose by double digits year-on-year. It was more dynamically reflected among the foreigners. The regions differed from each other only in the degree of the number of guests lagging behind the most successful last pre-Covid year of 2019.

The only region approaching the values from 2019 last year was Žilinský kraj. On the other hand, approximately 20% of guests were still missing in Nitriansky and Trenčiansky kraj. The most visited regions in 2023 were Bratislavský and Žilinský kraj with approximately 1.3 million tourists. While 6 out of 10 visitors in Bratislavský kraj were from abroad, the domestic clientele prevailed in Žilinský kraj. Prešovský kraj also exceeded the million number of visitors.