Nearly three million Slovaks took at least one overnight trip for personal reasons last year, new data from the national statistics office has found.
This represented around 65% of the population (over the age of 15), and while this was an 11% increase on the previous year, travel numbers were still around 13% below pre-pandemic levels.
Overall, half the population made trips within Slovakia, while two-fifths also travelled abroad – altogether, some 1.6 million people combined both domestic and overseas trips, a number that grew by 23% year-on-year.
The number of individuals that travelled only in Slovakia increased 0.3% year-on-year, to stand at 1.22 million people. A third cohort, comprising those that only travelled abroad, totalled 602,000, a 13% increase compared to the previous year.
Travel abroad
Altogether, 1.8 million Slovaks traveled abroad in 2024, the statistics body noted, either exclusively or in combination with domestic trips. This represented a 19% year-on-year increase, however it still fell short of the pre-pandemic figure, by around 11%, or 220,000 people.
The COVID-19 pandemic saw the number of individuals combining domestic and international travel drop by 84% (in 2020), and travel figures are still to recover to pre-pandemic numbers, even four years later.
Finally, some 1.6 million Slovaks did not travel for personal reasons at all during 2024, a figure that is down 290,000 on the previous year, but is close to half a million higher than before the pandemic.
‘The main reasons for not traveling were similar to the pre-pandemic period – financial, health reasons and motivation for vacation,’ the statistics office said. Read more here.
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