BUDAPEST, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- The number of Chinese tourists visiting Hungary, especially the capital Budapest, was on a dramatic rise, local media reported on Sunday.
"Among the foreign guests visiting Budapest, the number of arrivals from non-European markets increased in August, with China showing the greatest growth of 43 percent," the Budapest Festival and Tourism Center (BFTK) announced based on the figures of the Hungarian Central Statistics Office.
The other countries with the most tourists arriving to Budapest were Israel with 31.1 percent, and the United States, 22.4 percent.
Budapest's commercial guest turnover continued to grow in August, and in January-August the number of guest nights was close to seven million, according to BFTK.
"In August, the number of domestic guest arrivals increased most in the capital, by 9.6 percent, and the number of domestic guest nights grew by the same level, while total gross sales of commercial accommodation increased by 13.8 percent," BFTK added.
Earlier in the week, another event took place that would most probably support the increase of the Chinese tourists to Budapest in the future.
UniCredit Bank Hungary signed an agreement with Alipay, making China's leading mobile payment platform available to Chinese visitors in Hungary from 2019.
According to the latest number of the Hungarian Tourism Agency, 178,000 Chinese visitors visited Budapest in 2017. The number of Chinese tourists visiting Hungary grew by 34 percent last year, reaching 227,000.
While the numbers are not yet available for the current year, it is already known that in the first half of 2018, 140,000 Chinese tourists arrived, an increase of 11 percent.
