Budapest, Jan 31 (IANS): Hungary's tourism sector saw a strong recovery in 2022, with the number of overnight stays in the country's commercial accommodations increasing by almost 40 per cent year-on-year to nearly 40 million, the authorities said.

"The number of overnight stays was only 5 per cent fewer than in 2019 before the (Covid-19) pandemic," Zoltan Guller, Director of the Hungarian Tourism Agency, said on Monday.

Last year, revenues from commercial lodging increased by 52 per cent year-on-year to 668 billion Hungarian forints ($1.86 billion), Guller added.

Overall, the capital city, Budapest, was the most popular tourist destination in Hungary, while the northeastern mountain regions of Matra and Bukk, as well as Lake Balaton, were the most frequently visited destinations among domestic travellers, Xinhua news agency reported.

Most foreign visitors to Hungary arrived from Germany, followed by the Czech Republic, Romania, the UK and Poland.

Guller said that last year's tourism figures were still lower than those of 2019 due to fewer visitors from the US, Russia and China. (1 Hungarian forint = 0.0028 US dollar)