A frosty Christmas period in Europe saw a high number of winter holidaymakers head for the Alpine slopes. However, this also led to an increase in accidents.
Holiday insurance provider Europ Assistance has published figures on the initial two weeks of leisure at the end of December 2024 on Friday, RTBF reports.
According to them, their findings indicate a rise in people heading to the high and medium altitude resorts in the Alpine region this year. This is reflected in the increased number of medical cases Belgians on holidays have reported.
Over the two-week Christmas period, there has been a 7% rise in people needing medical treatment compared to last year. It is not all bad – 13% of all ski-related medical incidents resulted in hospitalisation, compared with 18% last year.
As for the ranking by country: France was the most popular destination for accidents and injuries (56% of medical cases opened), followed by Austria (25%), Switzerland (13%) and Italy (6%). Injuries are most common in the knees, legs, shoulders, hands and wrists.
Another aspect of the increase in winter holidaymakers is the rise in the use of breakdown services, given the large number of people choosing to drive down to the mountains from Belgium.
This year, a 17% increase in roadside interventions was noted in countries with ski resorts compared with last year. The heavy snowfall over the first weekend of the holiday period also largely contributed to these figures.
For people who choose not to go skiing during their holidays, the situation is very similar for car breakdowns. More holidaymakers this year led to 10% increase in the number of interventions abroad.
Cases were mainly opened on roads in France (34%), the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (12%), the Netherlands (9%), Germany (9%) and Spain (6%).
