Laczkó, T. (2021). Economic impact of foreign health tourists arrived in Hungary in 2019. Modern Geográfia, 16(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.15170/MG.2021.16.01.01
The demand derived from foreign health tourists arriving in Hungary is an important segment of tourism in the country. Health-related or health enhancing tourism became prioritized in Hungarian tourism in decades and their appeal is significant to foreign tourists whose spending has a positive impact in the Hungarian economy. The goal of this study is to demonstrate the characteristics of the different groups of foreign health tourists arriving in Hungary, and the economic impact their spending generated in 2019. In 2019, 3.59 million foreign health tourists arrived in Hungary, spent 10.63 million days in the country and generated 7.04 million guest nights. Average time spent in Hungary was 2.96 for health tourists and they spent 20,713 forint per day on average. These measures show longer stay and significantly higher spending than average foreign tourists. Taken into account tourism’s connection with other economic segments the expenditures of foreign health tourists arrived in Hungary in 2019 generated 252 billion forint total output, from which 120 billion forint GDP was generated and 96 billion forint tax income can be associated to the central budget.
Keywords: health tourism, medical tourism, wellness tourism, economic impact of health tourism, expenditure of foreign tourists