About 16.5 million foreigners visited Hungary in the first half of 2006, and 12.3 million of them just paid a one-day visit to the country, the Central Statistical Office reported on Monday.

The number of visitors was up 8.5 percent year-on-year, and the number of one-day visitors rose 17.4 percent.

Foreign visitors spent a total of 394 billion forints (US$1.728 billion) in Hungary in the January-June period.

One-day visitors spent 108 billion forints (US$512 million) or 27 percent of the total, and their spending rose 15 percent year-on-year.

More than two-fifths of those paying a one-day visit to Hungary were just crossing the country, with most of them from Romania, Serbia or Montenegro.

(Xinhua News Agency September 6, 2006)