The budget set aside by people living in Belgium for their summer holidays has risen significantly, even compared to pre-Covid times.
The average budget per person for holidays by plane is €1,330: an increase of 8% compared to 2019, the last year before the coronavirus crisis broke out, according to the latest figures from travel organisation TUI.
Meanwhile, the budget for holidays by car increased by 20% since 2019 to €450, and people are willing to fork out around €400 for city trips, up by 12% from three years ago.
In part, people are spending more on holidays because they have become more expensive due to rising inflation, resulting in everything costing more, including travel.
"But not all destinations are becoming more expensive," TUI Belgium spokesperson Piet Demeyere said. "Destinations like Egypt or Tunisia have to regain their place in the market after two years of standstill, and they are not going to do that by raising prices.”
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On the other hand, people are willing to spend more money on travel because they were either not able to do so for the past two years or preferred to travel closer to home by car. They are now more likely to opt for a more expensive destination or a hotel in a higher price range.
Positive outlook for summer
People are feeling more and more positive about the prospect of travel restrictions being lifted and the rollout of booster doses across Europe, which the organisation said was reflected in the increase in bookings for the summer season in the past two weeks.
“TUI even recorded more bookings every day than during the month of January of the peak year 2019,” a statement read.
Spain was once again the most popular destination for flight holidays for people living in Belgium, accounting for 35% of all bookings, followed by the Greek islands (25%).
Meanwhile, London, which was previously in the top three of city trip destinations during the summer, is struggling to make a comeback, as although measures on people coming from Belgium will be fully lifted from 11 February, Belgium has not yet lifted travel measures for people returning from the United Kingdom.
