Contributions employers must pay on wages should be cut and the retirement age of employees needs to be increased to ease current labour shortages in the tourism industry, according to the results of this year's annual survey carried out at the 26th Tourism Season Opening Gala.

Turizmus Kft., the publisher of HeadLines and turizmus.com, welcomed more than a thousand industry professionals at its annual Tourism Season Opening Gala at the Budapest Congress Center on 1 February. The event was held for the 26th time this year.

Each year, participants are surveyed about the current state of the tourism sector and desired future developments or regulatory changes in the industry. Guests attending the event answer questions from their seats by using an electronic voting device.

About 45% of the participants said this year that cutting compulsory social security and health contributions as well as extending the current retirement age would be the best tool to reduce labour shortages in the tourism sector.

In another question, half of the participants said reducing the current 18% VAT rate to 5% and introducing a 4% tourism development contribution on room rates would work best to improve the overall profitability of domestic hotels. This scheme has been already introduced in the hospitality sector.

Drawing up a marketing strategy that spans a period of several years could significantly help inbound tour operators and destination management companies (DMCs) increase their profitability, according to 42% of participants.

When asked about the most effective tool to make restaurants more profitable, the biggest portion of participants (39%) said that some of the income from the 4% tourism development contribution should be spent on domestic campaigns to boost the number of guests.

For rest of the results (in Hungarian), check out these slides.

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