According to data on tourist arrivals by motivation, released earlier by the Central Statistical Office (KSH), conference attendance was the reason behind 13% of all tourist arrivals in January-June 2005, following leisure (53%) and business (21%).
Almost 70% of conferences were organized in Budapest in the first half, with an average length of stay of four days. The most popular congress sites are still hotels, although their share of the market fell by 11% on the year, yielding to universities, research institutes and other sites, MT added.
Conferences in the period were split evenly between domestically and internationally organized events, while 69% of attendees were international guests, the same proportion as a year earlier.
The highest number of conference rooms can be found in three-star hotels, nearly 600 of the nationwide total of over 1600. Meanwhile, one-third of all guests in wellness hotels and 24% in five-star hotels stayed with the intent to participate in conferences in the January-June period, the KSH reported.
