More than 1.6 million foreign visitors stayed in accommodation facilities in Slovakia last year, which represents a rise of 7.3 percent on the year, stated representatives of the Slovak Association of Travel Agencies (SACKA) at a press conference on Tuesday. According to SACKA head Stanislav Macko, the increase is down to a hike in the quality of services in tourism and their diversity.
“It's becoming clear that support for tourism through subsidies to regional and local tourism associations is yielding fruit. The subsidies make it possible to raise the quality of the services and thereby help increase satisfaction among visitors to a particular destination”, said Macko. Czech tourists were the most numerous (approximately 492,000), followed by roughly 167,000 Polish tourists, and 153,000 Germans. When it comes to organised trips, Slovak travel agencies provided stays for 170,000 foreign visitors in Slovakia last year. In addition, Slovaks increasingly spend their holidays in Slovakia and do so several times a year. The number of Slovak tourists who used accommodation facilities rose by 3.9 percent year-on-year in 2013 to 2.3 million.
