Belgians made 23.7 million trips in 2024

According to the report, France remains by far the most popular foreign travel destination among Belgians, with 5.6 million trips and 41.4 million guest nights last year. This represents a 4.3 percent increase in the number of trips compared to 2023 and a 6.3 percent increase in overnight stays.

Spain was in second place last year with 2.1 million trips (+5.1 percent), replacing the second most popular destination the previous year, the Netherlands. The number of nights spent by Belgians in Spain was 21.9 million, an increase of 18 percent in one year.

In terms of destinations, the Netherlands, which ranked third last year, was visited by 1.9 million Belgians and spent 5.5 million nights, a decrease of 11.2 percent and 18.5 percent respectively compared to the previous year.

The Belgian Statistical Office noted that Portugal was not among the top ten destinations for Belgians last year, replaced by Turkey with around 400,000 trips and 8.7 million nights (+16 percent and +72.8 percent), making it ninth in the ranking.

Morocco also dropped from the list, handing over tenth place to Switzerland, which also registered nearly 400,000 Belgian travelers and 2.6 million nights spent by Belgians last year. This represents a significant increase compared to 2023 (+60.2 percent and +45.5 percent), the Belgian statistics office said.

The news portal also reported that Brussels Zaventem International Airport welcomed 11.28 million passengers in the first half of this year, 4 percent more than in the same six-month period last year. In terms of passenger traffic, this was the best first half of this year since 2019, the year before the coronavirus pandemic, when the airport welcomed 12.28 million passengers in the months under review. Brussels Airport is expecting more than 5 million passengers during July and August, they added.