Figures published by the West Flemish Tourist Board Westtoer show a big increase in the number of visitors to province’s coastal resorts during this year’s Easter Holiday’s compared with the Easter holidays in 2024. The figures show that a total of 1.3 million day-trippers visited the Flemish Coast between 5 and 21 April. This is up 20% on the Easter holidays last year.
The number of tourists staying at the coast overnight was also up. This year there were 1.6 million overnight stays at the coast. This is 10% up on Easter 2024. Occupancy rates were particularly high during the weekends.
Despite French-medium schools not starting their “Spring vacation” until Easter Monday, 20% of overnight stays during the Flemish schools’ Easter holidays were made by Francophones. However, Flemings were still by far the largest group, accounting for 65% of all those staying overnight at the coast.
Ook meer dagtoeristen
The number of day-trippers was up by 20% on last year’s Easter holidays. More than over 1.3 million people enjoyed a day at the coast. Top days for day trippers were Saturday 12 and Saturday 19 April, with around 125 000 visitors on each of these days
Westtoer says that the fine weather certainly played a role. During this year’s Easter holiday period, the sun shone for an average of almost 10 hours a day at the coast. That is 3 hours per day more than during the Easter holidays in 2024.