Tourist overnight stays reached record numbers in Belgium in 2023, demonstrating that the Covid-19 pandemic's negative effect on tourism in the country seems to have been eliminated almost entirely.
The number of overnight stays in Belgium last year neared 44.7 million. This marks a 3.9% increase compared to the previous year, and an even more significant rise (5.1%) when compared to pre-Covid figures of 2019. This is a new record for the country, figures published by Belgium's statistics agency Statbel and its European counterpart Eurostat showed.
This rise was also recorded in the European Union (EU) overall, which also surpassed 2019 levels for the first time. Nearly three billion overnight stays were booked in the bloc's countries, a 6.8% increase compared to 2022 – a more significant climb than Belgium recorded. However, compared to 2019, Belgium recorded a stronger rise than the European average of 2.3%.
When it comes to the evolution since 2019, Belgium is among the best-performing countries. It was shadowed by Luxembourg – which was an outlier with 22.2% more overnight stays – as well as the Netherlands (+15.3%), Denmark (+13.5%) and Portugal (+9.4%). Neighbouring France saw a modest 3.1% rise in overnight stays compared to 2019, while Germany still saw its tourism level drop (-1.3%). Latvia and Slovakia's overnight tourism is recovering at the slowest speed.
Domestic tourism continues to dominate
More than 18.5 million tourists visited Belgium, of whom more than half were Belgians visiting another area of the country. They also accounted for over half of overnight stays (23.1 million, or 52%). This puts Belgium in line with the European average (53.5%).
People living in its neighbouring countries are more likely to take a trip within the country's borders – in the Netherlands, domestic tourism accounted for 58.5% of overnight stays, while in France and Germany, this was as high as 69.9% and 81.4%, respectively. Luxembourg, however, is very unpopular as a holiday destination for its citizens (13.6%).
The coast remains a popular destination for Belgian toursist. Credit: Belga / Lieven Van Assche
On this side of the spectrum, the country is joined by the states with the most foreign tourists, including Malta (93.1%), Croatia (91.3%) and Greece (83.6%).
Aside from being a favourite destination for people from within the country's borders, Belgium remained most popular in the Netherlands (Dutch people accounted for around 6.1 million overnight stays, mostly in Limburg by the Dutch border). The country was also popular among Germans (3.2 million overnight stays) and the French (2.7 million overnight stays). Many Brits and Americans also travelled to Belgium.
Flanders received the biggest bulk of tourists (almost 11 million), while Wallonia welcomed around four million tourists from Belgium and abroad, followed by Brussels (3.5 million). The Capital Region drew more international tourists than Belgian visitors. For domestic tourism, the coast remains the most popular destination by far: West Flanders attracted almost eight million overnight stays by some four million Belgian visitors.
Hotels remain the most popular form of accommodation both in Belgium and the EU: around 50% of overnight stays were booked in hotels in Belgium (as high as 95% in Brussels), while around 62.5% of overnight stays took place in hotels in the EU.
