This year, fewer day trippers visited the seaside but the number of foreign tourists, especially Germans was up. There were 5.6 million day-trippers, which is about 6 per cent less than in 2024. Hotel occupancy levels remained similar, with hotels filling about 72% of rooms on average.
‘If we only look at the figures for the summer months, we do indeed see a slight decrease of 6 per cent compared to 2024,’ says Ellen Bruynooghe of the West Flemish tourism agency Westtoer. ‘But if we look at the whole year, from January to August, we see the best figures since the pandemic.’
‘We were blessed with a beautiful spring, which brought around 13.7 million day-trippers to the coast. Hotel occupancy levels remained in line with previous years, with hotels getting an average occupancy rate of 72 per cent.’
More foreign tourists, especially from Germany
What has increased is the number of foreign tourists. ‘59 per cent of the day trippers came from Flanders, 24 per cent from Wallonia and 17 per cent from abroad. Among the foreigners, Germans were in the majority. They have been in the lead for some time, but we are seeing their number gradually increase year after year. It is a market that is definitely on the rise.’
To start the summer season, Westtoer organised a social media campaign in collaboration with the coast guard service. Videos warned of the dangers of the sea. ‘The videos were well received and viewed more than 2.5 million times. The video about safe swimming in the sea in particular was viewed a huge number of times.’
‘It certainly achieved its goal. We noticed that many bathers are not always fluent in the four common languages. That is why we wanted to reach as many tourists as possible in their native language. In addition to the videos in Dutch, French, German and English, the videos in Arabic, Romanian and Spanish were also viewed multiple times.’