Official figures show Belgium’s Flanders and Wallonia regions have recovered from Covid-19’s tourism crisis, but the Belgian capital Brussels is still lagging behind them.
Brussels is yet to match, let alone beat, its pre-Covid-19 incoming tourist numbers, according to national statistics office, Statbel. Only 7.1 million tourists stayed overnight in the Belgian capital in 2023. While this is going in the right direction, 15% more than in 2022, it stands out as a drop of 4% compared to 2019.
Brussels behind Wallonia and Flanders for overnight stays in 2023
In contrast, the northern European country overall saw 44,696,602 overnight tourist stays in 2023, the metric 4% up on 2022 and 5% up on pre-Covid benchmark year 2019. It is the northern and southern regions driving that increase then, with Flanders boasting over 28 million stays, a 6% rise since 2019. While Wallonia only welcomed 9.5 million overnighters, that represents an even bigger increase for them, of 9%.
The grand re-opening of key cultural attractions such as Antwerp’s Fine Art Museum (KMSKA) after 11 years has been credited with bringing in many, while Flanders’ tourism minister Zuhal Demir, in a statement earlier this spring, attributed the region’s success to the way it had worked “very hard with Visit Flanders in recent years to keep Flanders in the spotlight as a destination, even during the lockdowns when travel was not really possible,” adding: “It is great to see that all these efforts are paying off.”
In fact, domestic tourists are leading the charge in the land of moules frites, beer, chocolate and surrealism. Over half (23 million) of the country’s 44.7 million overnight stays in 2023 were trips made by Belgians themselves, 8% up on 2019.
Foreign tourist overnight stays were also up in 2023, but by only 2% compared to 2019. When it comes to cross border visitors, 6.5 million of Belgium’s northern neighbours from The Netherlands chose to make an overnight trip there. Germany provided 3.2 million overnight guests, while France came in at 2.7 million. Meanwhile, the UK and the USA were the source of 1.8 million and 958,500 overnight stays respectively.
And what’s the accommodation of choice? The same Statbel report shows that hotels remained the most popular accommodation category in 2023, attracting 46% of overnight stays. In comparison, 17% of stays were booked in holiday homes and apartments.
European tourism industry surpasses 2019 levels in first quarter of 2024
As for 2024, initial data for Q1 reveals 2,444,610 overnight stays, roughly static in terms of growth for the start of the year, putting Belgium behind increases seen in other northern European nations, especially the Nordics.
The tourism industry in Europe has finally surpassed 2019 levels, foreign arrivals exceeding pre-Covid numbers by 7.2% and overnights by 6.5% in the first quarter of 2024, according to the latest “European Tourism Trends & Prospects” quarterly report from the European Travel Commission (ETC).
