Tourism in Brussels still not back to pre-pandemic levels
While the number of tourist overnight stays in Flanders and Wallonia in 2022 exceeded the level of 2019 - before the Covid-19 crisis- tourism in Brussels has still not recovered from the pandemic, figures from Statbel show.
Across Belgium, 44,696,602 tourist overnight stays were booked in 2023, an increase of 4 per cent compared to 2022 and 5 per cent compared to 2019. This is mainly due to the increase in overnight stays in Flanders and Wallonia. Flanders recorded more than 28 million overnight stays (+6 per cent compared to 2019), Wallonia more than 9.5 million (+9 per cent).
Brussels, on the other hand, has not yet returned to pre-Covid-19 levels. The capital recorded more than 7.1 million tourist overnight stays last year, 4 per cent less than in 2019, but 15 per cent more than in 2022.
More than 23 million overnight stays in Belgium were booked by domestic tourists. Among foreign visitors, Belgium is most popular with the Dutch, who booked 6.15 million overnight stays last year. They are followed by Germans (3.2 million), French (2.7 million), British (1.8 million) and American visitors (around 958,500).
Almost half of all overnight stays were in hotels, followed by gîtes, holiday homes and apartments, Statbel said.
© BELGA PHOTO BENOIT DOPPAGNE
Related news
