Stats: Number of Hotel and Guest-house Visitors Up 9 percent Y-o-Y in April

Bratislava, 11 June (TASR) - The number of people staying in tourist accommodation facilities in Slovakia rose by 9 percent year-on-year (y-o-y) to almost 419,000 in April, the Statistics Office reported on Wednesday, adding that this was the most successful April for accommodation providers since the pandemic. However, Slovak hotels, guest houses and other accommodation facilities still lacked 5 percent to match the record set in the pre-pandemic month of April 2019. Guests spent in hotels and guest houses 13 percent nights more than a year ago, with the average length of stay equalling 2.4 nights in April. Domestic clientele made up almost two thirds of all visitors, with their number going up by almost 7 percent to 261,000 in April. However, the figure was still 4 percent below the figure for the pre-pandemic month of April 2019. The number of foreign visitors went up by 13 percent y-o-y to 158,000. However, this figure still lacked 7 percent to catch up with the record set in April 2019. All regions of Slovakia reported growth in the number of visitors in April, with increases ranging from 1.1 percent in Kosice region to 13.7 percent in Zilina region. The highest number of tourists visited the regions that have long been at the top in terms of visitor numbers. Bratislava region dominated with 119,000 guests using services of its accommodation facilities, up almost 12,000 y-o-y. Top spots were also occupied by Zilina region with 81,000 guests and Presov region with 62,000 visitors. These three regions together accounted for more than 60 percent of the total visitor numbers in Slovakia. Zilina and Presov regions were popular mainly among domestic visitors, providing accommodation to 40 percent of the Slovak clientele in total. They only differed in the number of accommodated foreigners, with Presov region seeing significantly fewer of them. In Bratislava region, foreign guests accounted for almost half of all foreigners accommodated in Slovakia. ko