The summer of 2023, riddled with heatwaves, floods and wildfires in some of Belgium's favoured holiday destinations, is coming to a close. A survey has shown that these extreme weather conditions could impact Belgians' holidays in the future.
From flash hailstorms in northern Italy, resulting in people having to be repatriated by bus, to forest fires in Greece seeing dozens of tourists fleeing their hotels on the island of Rhodes, this summer has not been an easy one for many Belgian tourists.
A survey commissioned by mobility organisation VAB showed that more than one in seven Belgians (13.1%) have already changed their current travel plans due to such extreme weather conditions, which detract from the appeal of these destinations, while they will likely affect future travel plans of one in five (19.4%) Belgians.
"A total of 32.5%, or one in three Belgians are thus adjusting or will adjust their travel plans due to extreme weather conditions," VAB noted. Overall, women more often adjusted their holiday plans, as did the 25 - 44 age group. A study published earlier this year also showed these changing travel trends could be an economic boost for the tourism sectors in Northern Europe in the future.
Busiest "black" weekend
While the survey predicts a more dramatic impact on travel to the south in the future, this was not yet reflected in the traffic statistics from this summer, as VAB recorded the busiest "black Saturday" ever on French motorways, referring to extremely heavy traffic with huge traffic jams.
"On 29 July, there were 1,131 kilometres of traffic jams in France, accounting for the busiest 'black' Saturday ever," the organisation stated, adding that according to the figures, it is more likely there will be four black Saturdays in the future instead of two (29-30 July and 5 August).
"On the 'red' weekend of 22 July, France was almost as busy as on the 'black' weekend of 5 August. At its 'peak', there were 871 km of traffic jams. That's as much as the 'Black Saturday' in the last weekend of 2022. On the 'red' weekend of 12 August, the all-time traffic jam record was broken in France a little before noon at 1,179 km," meaning the colour-coded prediction for these weekends next year could be black too.
VAB's summer tally showed that, after years of increase, there were fewer tyre problems (-5%), but on the other hand, there were more accidents, which it believes could be linked to the heat waves.
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"Of course, we cannot link them all to the hot weather, but there may be a connection. If temperatures remain high at night, people sleep worse, so they are also more tired when they get up, which has a negative impact on concentration. Poorer concentration, in turn, can lead to more accidents. Hot weather during the day also makes people languid and less concentrated."
Half of all interventions for road assistance were in France (which always takes the top spot), but the rise of Croatia as a popular destination was also reflected in the figures, as more interventions took place here.
