Slovakia Travel: Congress Tourism Growing in Slovakia, One-day Events Prevail

Bratislava, 25 October (TASR) - International congresses and various professional events are being organised more and more often in Slovakia, which has resulted in growth in congress tourism in the country, Zuzana Eliasova, spokesperson for national tourism promotion organisation Slovakia Travel, reported earlier this week. According to figures released by the Statistics Office, the year-on-year (y-o-y) increase between 2023-2024 was as high as 52 percent. One-day events are prevalent, said Eliasova. "Congress tourism isn't just about numbers, but also about the country's reputation. Each such event helps to build an image of Slovakia as a modern and open destination for business and innovation," said the organisation's CEO Matej Fekete. According to Slovakia Travel, congress tourism has a significant impact on the economy of the country and the development of individual destinations. It brings in high revenues from accommodation, catering and other related services. At the same time, it takes place outside the peak tourist season, which helps to fill capacities across the industry as a whole. Congress tourism in Slovakia drew in almost 600,000 congress guests last year, while the figure was more than 390,000 in 2023. Almost 111,000 of these guests came to Slovakia in the first quarter of 2025. Concerning individual regions, almost a third of the guests came to Bratislava region last year, with their number going up by more than 50 percent y-o-y. Zilina region accounted for a 23-percent share, with its figure going up by almost 80 percent y-o-y. However, the biggest improvement was recorded in Trnava region, where the number of congress guests rose by more than 120 percent. More than 5,000 congresses took place in Slovakia last year. There were slightly over 4,600 of them in 2023, meaning an increase of over 8 percent y-o-y. One-day congresses and events made up more than 60 percent of all congress events. In terms of the number of participants, events with 50 to 249 guests dominated, accounting for 94 percent of such events last year. ko/df