The number of tourist overnight stays in July dropped this year compared to the same month last year, likely due to the cold, wet weather.
While Belgium was basking in the heat this time last year, the weather in recent weeks has hardly made lying on the beach or swimming in the sea an attractive prospect. The effects of the rain and cold temperatures have resulted in the coast recording fewer tourist overnight stays in the last month, compared to July 2022, figures from provincial company Westtoer showed.
In total, around five million overnight stays were recorded, with average occupancy in coastal hotels hovering around 70%. Westtoer argued that the decrease can be explained by the bad weather but also by the late start of the summer holidays in French-speaking Belgium, leading to fewer Walloon tourists at the seaside.
This saw the number of bookings by French-speaking Belgians from the region drop by 15% to 1.2 million overnight stays, while the number of overnight stays booked by people from Flanders dropped by 10% to 3.1 million overnight stays.
However, the number of overnight stays by foreign holidaymakers at the coast did increase by about 10% compared to last year. The coast is especially popular with Germans, followed by French and Dutch holidaymakers.
The holiday homes sector speaks of booking figures that are similar to those of last year. "It was notable, however, that bookings were made for longer periods in the month of July this year. Indeed, with a lower number of bookings, a similar number of accommodation nights were rented out. Despite the typically Belgian summer, numerous last-minute bookings were also recorded," Westtoer echoes.
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Mobile phone data shows that 2.3 million day tourists travelled to the coast in July, 15-20% less than the same period last year. The most popular weekend was that of 8 and 9 July, when 300,000 day-trippers descended to the sea. In June, the hot weather attracted 1.6 million day tourists to the coast, up 10% from last year.
The number of overnight bookings for August is also lower than last year for the time being. Booking data with online bookings at 150 coastal hotels shows that there are currently 48,000 room nights booked online for the month of August, down by 7% compared to August 2022. "The tourism industry is hoping for nice and stable summer weather for additional last-minute bookings," Westtoer concluded.
