The share of foreigners in the total number of visitors to the SR is growing, in October it was the highest since March 2020

The total number of visitors in October 2021 increased more than half year-on-year, but half of the clients were still missing to reach the values of October 2019. After several months, the share of foreign guests reached almost 29 %.

In October 2021, almost 285 thousand people visited tourist accommodation establishments in Slovakia. Year-on-year, the total number of guests more than doubled, with the number of foreigners growing more dynamically, their number was four times higher than in October last year. However, the situation last October was significantly affected by the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the total number of guests dropped radically, so we compare the data with the corresponding period in 2019.

In October, the guests spent 782 thousand nights in the accommodation establishments. Their number increased 1,7 times, year-on-year, but in pre-pandemic period (in October 2019) it was up to 1,4 million nights.

During October, the majority of guests were domestic tourists, representing 71,3 % of the total number of visitors in hotels, boarding houses and other accommodation establishments in the SR (203 thousand people).

During October 2021, foreign tourists began to return to us, their number was four times higher than last October. Accommodation services have already been used by 82 thousand foreign visitors, which represented 29 % of the visitors. This is the highest share of foreigners in the last 19 months. Before the pandemic (October 2019), foreigners comprised more than a third (36 %) of visitors. Pandemic has the most significant impact especially on the drop in the number of foreign guests. The record drop occurred in May 2020, when foreign guests accounted for only 6 % of total number of visits.

High year-on-year increases of foreigners were achieved in all regions, most notably in Bratislavský kraj. Every second foreign visitor to Slovakia visited to this region. It was followed by Žilinský kraj, Prešovský kraj and Trnavský kraj. Altogether, these four regions represented 83 % of the total foreign visitors.

The number of domestic visitors doubled year-on-year. However, compared to 2019, though, the number of domestic visitors was still significantly lower, to reach the values from October 2019, 37 % of domestic tourists were still missing in Bratislavský kraj and 58 % of domestic tourists in Nitriansky kraj.

In total, from January to October 2021, 2,5 million visitors were accommodated in tourism establishments, representing a year-on-year drop by 17,8 %. Compared to the corresponding pre-pandemic period, the total number of guests was lower by 54 %, while there was a more significant drop in the visit rate of foreigners by 76 %.