12 July 2023 at 00:02
Last summer, the Dutch more often opted for a trip abroad than for a holiday in their own country. That was the first time since the corona crisis started in 2020. We also fly less often and take the train more often.
Last summer, 10.8 million Dutch people went on holiday at least once, according to figures from Statistics Netherlands. That is slightly more than the 10.7 million in 2019, the last year before the pandemic.
Slightly more than half (56 percent) of the holidays last year had a destination outside the country’s borders. France was at the top, with almost two million holidays.
The French trumped Germany. In 2019, the Germans were still number one. But this year, the eastern neighbors lost out to France by a large margin. The number of holidays in Germany stuck at 1.6 million.
Last summer we also often chose Spain, Italy and Belgium. The three countries each welcomed more than a million Dutch people.
Many holidays in our own country during corona years
Holidays in our own country were very popular in the corona years 2020 and 2021. Partly due to the uncertainty about new outbreaks and lockdowns, many Dutch people chose to stay at a bungalow park or campsite within the national borders.
Last year there were few travel restrictions, so that abroad beckoned again. We didn’t want to go too far. The ten most popular destinations are all within Europe. Only one in ten trips was to another part of the world, where in 2019 that was about one in seven. Asia and North America in particular were less popular.
This contributed to the fact that we went on holiday less often by plane last summer. The Dutch chose to fly for 35 percent of trips abroad, compared with 45 percent three years earlier. In absolute numbers, this meant a drop of one million air travel.
Dutch holidaymakers chose the train for 8 percent of foreign trips. That is a total of 900,000 train journeys. Three years ago, that share of train journeys was only 4 percent.
2023-07-11 22:02:53
#holiday #country #loses #trip #Economy
