costs match Europe but revenues lag behind

A new study says tourist traps create competition that squeezes quality restaurants, as foreign visitor numbers fall and most Hungarians cannot afford to eat out regularly.

Across the EU, the number of hospitality venues is falling fastest in Hungary. Between 2021 and 2024 the decline was 6 percent, while 22 member states recorded growth. Looking at the past ten years, the situation is even more dramatic: 18.5 percent of hospitality businesses have disappeared.

According to a recently published study , one reason for the worsening trend is that cheap, poor-quality lángos and goulash bars, geared towards foreign tourists and working with high margins, are pushing quality restaurants out of the market. This segment primarily attracts low-spending visitors, such as stag party tourists, which is problematic for the country’s image as well

“I dare say that we are the only country in the world where you can get lángos with Greek salad, lángos with beef stew, and I could go on. There is nothing wrong with a simple dish being good. That is not a problem at all. The problem is when we try to serve this simple dish in a way that means it is no longer that dish, and on top of that we try to attach a gastronomic culture to it,” said Áron Reményik, author of the study and communications expert at Raconteur Agency.

Hungary becoming expensive

Tourism was at its highest in 2025, but even that failed to really give hospitality a boost. This year, the problems have multiplied: after the election, the strengthening of the forint has made Budapest 12–14 percent more expensive for tourists paying in euros, and nation-branding campaigns have also been halted. In August, 14 percent fewer foreign tourists came to Hungary than a year earlier.

As a result, Hungarian restaurants face huge competitiveness problems, according to the founder of Eventrend Group, a corporate group that operates 35 hospitality venues.

“We have reached European price levels in almost every cost category. We pay almost the same for energy and wages. Today, it is cheaper to employ hospitality workers in southern Italy or southern Spain than in Hungary. In Austria, it may still be a little more expensive, but overall, there is not much difference. Raw material prices are almost at the same level,” explained Zoltán Kőrössy to Euronews.

Few Hungarians can afford to eat out regularly

While costs — and therefore often prices — are at a Western European level, revenues are not. In Austria, for example, there is a similar number of hospitality venues, but the sector’s turnover is twice that of Hungary. And this depends not only on tourists but also on domestic guests.

Economist Zoltán Pogátsa recently pointed out that two-thirds of Hungarian society live on less money than the EU’s lower middle class. Yet without a broad, solvent middle class, restaurants that rely on returning guests cannot operate

It is no surprise that, since measurements began, the number of hospitality venues in the capital fell below 8,000 for the first time in 2024, and by the end of 2025, the Central Statistical Office recorded only 7,778.

According to Reményik, one possible solution would be to extend the certification and inspection system for Hungarikums and authentic Hungarian cuisine to the street-food segment as well.

It would also help if the number of purely tourist-oriented street-food outlets in the busiest tourist zones were limited. That will not, of course, give Hungarians more money to eat out, but the likely fall in rents caused by weaker competition might put struggling quality restaurants in a slightly better position.

Source: www.euronews.com