The upcoming spring holidays for French-speaking Belgians are exacerbating the staff shortage in the coast’s hotel and catering establishments, representatives from the industry said on Friday.
The French-speaking spring holidays will start on Saturday and end on 14 May, making it the first time that the holidays have been spread over several periods in Belgium, following the French-speaking reform of school rhythms.
Hotels, restaurants and cafés usually rely on students to bolster their ranks during the holidays, but most of these young people will be back at university in the next two weeks.
Hotels on the coast are seeing more bookings for the upcoming spring holidays in French-speaking Belgium than for the past Easter holidays in Flanders, Westtoer, the tourism office of the province of West Flanders, revealed on Thursday.
On the eve of the holidays for Walloon and Brussels pupils, hotels on the coast saw their bookings jump by 25% compared to the start of the Easter holidays in Flanders. There was also a 52% increase in online hotel bookings compared to the same period last year, when there was no holiday.
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For the May Day long weekend, Westtoer reports an average booking rate of 70% in coastal hotels, noting a higher number of bookings for the month of May from French-speaking Belgians.
Westtoer also expects second home owners in French-speaking Belgium to travel to the sea in the next two weeks. As the holiday season starts at the same time in the Netherlands, many Dutch people are also expected to visit the North Sea.
