The number of guests in hotels and boarding houses increased in June as well, but their number still lags behind the record year of 2019 by a fifth

The number of domestic visitors in accommodation establishments has already surpassed the June values from 2017 and 2018. Compared to the last pre-Covid June 2019, there were by 9% fewer Slovaks and by a third fewer foreigners in hotels and boarding houses.

In June, 491 thousand guests used accommodation services within the tourism industry. In a year-on-year comparison, there were by 70% more visitors in hotels and other accommodation establishments, but it was still by almost a fifth less than in the corresponding period before the pandemic (June 2019). Guests spent 1.2 million nights in accommodation establishments, the average length of stay in June was 2.5 nights.

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Almost 70% of the visitors were domestic guests, 334 thousand domestic guests were accommodated in hotels and boarding houses in June, which was a 1.4-fold year-on-year increase. Compared to the pre-Covid June 2019, there was a lower number domestic visitors by a tenth.

Even during June, the gradual return of foreign visitors continued, their number increased by up to 3.3 times year-on-year and 157 thousand foreigners visited accommodation establishments. Thus, it rose to two-thirds the number of visitors compared to June 2019, i.e. before the pandemic. The share of foreigners in the total number of guests also increased. While in the first two years of the pandemic, visitors from abroad accounted for approximately 17% of visitors, in June of this year it was already 32%. In the pre-pandemic period, in June 2019, they represented up to 40% of the total number of visits.

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Within the regions, year-on-year growth in the number of visits was evident in all regions, but last year it was still decimated by the consequences of measures against the pandemic. In June, the largest number of guests stayed in Bratislavský kraj, 113 thousand people visited it, more than half of which were foreign visitors. It was followed by Žilinský and Prešovský kraj, but compared to Bratislavský kraj, they only had a quarter of the share of foreign visitors. Together, these three regions accounted for 60% of the total number of visits. The lowest number of visits was in Nitriansky kraj.

In summary, for the first half of 2022, 1.9 million visitors stayed in tourism establishments. Compared to the corresponding period before the pandemic (first half of 2019), there were less than a third of visitors. In the first half of the year, 589 thousand foreigners used accommodation services, in 2019 it was almost twice as many, i.e. 1.1 million foreigners. In case of domestic visitors, the number of visitors decreased by less than a quarter compared to 2019, since the beginning of the year, 1.3 million domestic guests used accommodation services. Guests spent almost 5 million nights in accommodation establishments, in 2019 it was 7.6 million nights.

Development of accommodation establishment capacities in the 2^nd quarter of 2022

In the 2^nd quarter, accommodation services in Slovakia were provided by 4 361 accommodation establishments (an increase of 137 accommodation establishments compared to the first quarter of this year). 68 thousand rooms and 189 thousand beds (including camping places) were available to the visitors. The net occupancy rate of permanent bed places was 25%, the occupancy rate of bedrooms 31%. The average number of available bedrooms per day was 57 thousand, the average number of available permanent bed places per day was 130 thousand.

In the second quarter of 2022, accommodation establishments achieved turnover (excluding VAT) in the amount of EUR 103 million, which is a 2.7-fold year-on-year increase. The majority of turnover was generated by domestic visitors (65%). The highest turnover was achieved in Bratislavský, Žilinský and Prešovský kraj, together these three regions reported 60% of the total turnover in the Slovak Republic. Bratislavský kraj accounted for more than 40% of the total turnover from foreign visitors and it was the only region where the turnover from foreign visitors exceeded the turnover from domestic guests.