Tourism direct GDP (2023) | Tourism direct employment (2024) | Travel exports (2024) |
|---|---|---|
4.0% of total GDP (up 0.6 percentage points since 2022) | 9.4% of total employment (up 0.5 percentage points since 2023) | 20.7% of total service exports (down 0.4 percentage points since 2023) |
OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2026
National tourism strategy: National Tourism Strategy 2030
National tourism administration: Ministry for National Economy
National tourism budget: HUF 45 billion (2025)
Key tourism policy priorities and actions:
Supporting data-driven decision making – The establishment of the National Tourism Data Supply Centre for accommodation establishments, catering units and tourist attractions to provide a starting point for data-driven management and future development.
Revising the tourism education system – Modernising and enhancing teaching methods, training materials and educational content to meet contemporary standards.
Providing a quality experience for tourists – Shifting the focus towards qualitative development in tourism including through the Tourism Bank and targeted financial support for beverage retailers operating in smaller settlements and engaged in hospitality activities.
Tourism is a key sector of the Hungarian economy, expanding at a significantly higher rate than the national economy for many years. The sector represented 4.0% of GDP in 2023. Tourism is an important source of employment, providing 421 000 jobs in 2024 or 9.4% of national employment. Travel exports accounted for 20.7% of total service exports in 2024.
In 2024, tourism in Hungary reached record-breaking levels. Together, both domestic and international tourists accounted for more than 18.2 million total arrivals at all types of accommodation establishments. Of this figure, 8.9 million were international tourists, representing a 19.3% increase compared to 2023. International travel receipts reached HUF 2 945 trillion. The top three source markets across all inbound visitors in 2024 were Germany (10%), Romania (7%), and Poland (7%). International arrivals increased a further 12.0% in 2025. Furthermore, 9.4 million domestic overnight trips were recorded in 2024, representing a 6.2% increase compared to 2023. Domestic tourism expenditure accounted for 28% of total tourism expenditure in 2024.
The Ministry for National Economy is responsible for tourism policy in Hungary. The Ministry of Public Administration and Regional Development oversees active, eco-tourism, and wine tourism, while the Ministry for National Economy handles health tourism in co-operation with the Minister responsible for Health. Sport tourism lies with the Ministry of Defence, and heritage tourism falls under the Ministry of Construction and Investment. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade co-ordinates bilateral, regional, and international tourism.
The Hungarian Tourism Agency manages the tourism sector at both national and regional levels. The Agency is responsible for tourism strategy development, tourism product development and management, central marketing, international sales, communication campaigns, and the co-ordination of specific tourism initiatives through its subsidiary, Visit Hungary.
Work is underway to create a new destination management services network to ensure effective communication between local and central levels and within destinations, promoting a destination-based approach to product development and successful market entry. Led by the Hungarian Tourism Agency, the new model aims to implement unified management and support the co-operation of local stakeholders to achieve a shared vision for Hungarian destinations.
Note: The chart reflects the structure as of April 2026. Following the forming of the new government, it may be subject to change.
Source: OECD, adapted from the Hungarian Tourism Agency, 2026.
The National Tourism Strategy 2030 guides tourism policy and programme development in Hungary. The Strategy was revised in 2021 and again in 2023. The Hungarian National Tourism Strategy 2030 defines 12 guidelines, supported by four horizontal guiding principles: demand-centricity, a collaborative ecosystem, family-friendly tourism, and digital tourism.
The collaborative ecosystem promotes the concept of “co-living tourism,” which aims to improve the quality of life for both tourists and local residents, while also ensuring the preservation of natural resources. A typical example is the development of spa facilities, which improve the quality of life for locals, particularly as municipalities often provide them with discounted entry tickets. Digital tourism brings innovative solutions to the forefront, placing a strong emphasis on modelling and integrating the tourist-customer journey through data-driven decision making.
A key milestone in the development of digital tourism was the establishment of the National Tourism Data Supply Centre for accommodation establishments, catering units and tourist attractions (NTDSC - see box below). This system provides a stable foundation for the sector, serving as the starting point for data-driven management and future development. By focusing on sales and pre-booking data, the Data Supply Centre plays a prominent role in guiding marketing activities, marking the future direction of targeted promotion. Destination logic has also reached a new level with the creation of regional brands, which will be given even greater emphasis moving forward. Certain municipalities have created their own brands for local products. For example, the town of Mórahalom received the UN Tourism Best Tourism Villages award. The village has developed its own brand, Homokháti Portéka (“Products from the Sand Valley”), which promotes locally produced goods and regional identity. A National Active Tourism Strategy 2030 has also been developed to guide actions to increase the participation rate and frequency of active tourism and recreational activities among Hungary’s population. The National Active Tourism Strategy serves as a guiding policy to create synergies between developing active tourism and ensuring the balanced and sustainable growth of this segment. It also provides a framework for co-ordinating a wide range of state and local government initiatives, as well as private investments, to mobilise active tourism development and ensure the efficient use of resources.
To support the digital and green transformation of the sector, Hungary is supporting tourism SMEs to develop their digital skills. The Hungarian Tourism Agency, under the authority of the Ministry for National Economy, organised workshops in each region, and free software “Vendégem” (“Guest”) was provided to accommodation establishments, catering businesses, and tourist attractions. Vendégem, is a tool for tourism service providers that enables them to submit data directly to the National Tourism Data Supply Centre. As data reporting is mandatory in Hungary, this free software provides significant support for SMEs to manage their administrative and budgeting tasks.
To be eligible to use Vendégem, tourism businesses must meet specific criteria: accommodation establishments can have a maximum of 8 residential units and 16 rooms, while hospitality businesses and tourism attractions must demonstrate, through their annual business reports, that their net sales revenue ranges between HUF 12 million and HUF 50 million. Workshops were organised to guide business owners to use the software effectively. While video tutorials are available, these in-person sessions allowed participants to ask questions and receive practical guidance. Vendégem users also benefit from access to the NTDSC Compass (NTAK Iránytű), a platform that consolidates their data into daily, weekly, monthly, or annual summaries, providing clear insights into their operational performance.
Vendégem software for private accommodation providers includes a self-check-in feature, which greatly simplifies the process for both guests and hosts. By using self-check-in, tourists do not need to meet with the host in person, addressing a common logistical challenge in this segment of the market.
The tourism education system, including both secondary schools and universities, is being revised. Teaching methods are being modernised, and training materials and educational content are being improved. Key developments include: The largest university offering higher education in tourism has revised and updated its curriculum, making them more practice-oriented and aligned with international trends. Finally, a training programme for secondary school teachers has been designed and successfully piloted. The programme is scheduled for accreditation by the official education authority in the first quarter of 2026, after which it will be made available nationwide.
In recent years, Hungary has concentrated on enhancing its competitiveness primarily through quantitative achievements, including increasing international visitors. The country is on track to meet its numerical targets by the end of 2025. From 2026 onwards, the focus will increasingly shift towards qualitative development in tourism. Hungary has already introduced several measures for the qualitative improvement of tourism services. In the summer of 2025, Hungary established the Tourism Bank to provide favourable loan schemes to tourism enterprises, enabling them to expand, modernise and improve the quality of their services. Hungary launched a multi-stage grant programme at the beginning of 2025 to provide financial support to beverage retailers operating in smaller settlements and engaged in hospitality activities. From January 2026, the support schemes have been supplemented with loan programs, through which businesses can access funding in various forms. The pool of beneficiaries is expected to broaden with subsequent stages of implementation, promoting wide-scale quality development. Overall, these government initiatives contribute to the long-term goal of ensuring that tourists visiting Hungary can enjoy high-quality experiences and meaningful leisure time.
The National Tourism Data Supply Centre (NTDSC) was established by the Hungarian Tourism Agency in 2019. The NTDSC system has undergone several developments since its inception, with the aim of making it as user-friendly as possible. Hungarian tourist service providers must use business software that is compatible with NTDSC’s software. As data submission in the sector is mandatory, the Hungarian Tourism Agency developed a free software for small businesses to fulfil requirements. During the summer of 2025, both accommodation and hospitality businesses were interviewed regarding the use of Vendégem. A total of ten interviews were conducted, five with accommodation providers and five with hospitality businesses from the SME sector. Overall, feedback on the software was largely positive, although some constructive criticisms were raised. It is important to emphasise that free government software is intentionally not very user-friendly, because it cannot have a distorting effect on competition in the market.
One of its most important and beneficial features for hospitality providers and catering facilities, is the NTDSC Compass, an analytical platform developed to assist Hungarian tourism service providers in data-driven decision making. In response to the challenge of fragmented industry data, it consolidates real-time statistics from NTDSC and provides a wide range of valuable information to the stakeholders in the sector. Tourism businesses, as data providers, register information on various indicators, such as the number of guests, guest nights, and anonymised guest data (year of birth, country of residence, and city of residence), in the NTDSC system. On the Compass platform, data providers can review their own submitted data, with the system automatically generating charts and tables. This allows them to identify key insights, such as peak tourist seasons and the most popular services. The platform also supports marketing and service planning by helping businesses better understand their target groups and adapt services to meet guest preferences. A unique and useful feature of the NTDSC Compass is the ability for accommodation providers to compare their performance with three randomly selected anonymised businesses in their region, providing a clear perspective on their position in the local market.