Fewer domestic and more foreign holidays last year

Large numbers of Dutch went on holiday last year, despite the economic recession. The number of long holidays remained fairly stable. More long holidays were spent abroad, but the number of domestic long holidays declined. 

Fewer domestic long holidays

The number of long holidays spent in the Netherlands has fallen in recent years from 8.7 million in 2009 to 8.3 million in 2011. Presumably, the downturn is partly caused by the bad weather conditions in the summer of 2011. The number of long foreign holidays grew from 14.6 to 14.9 million over the same period. 

Number of long domestic and foreign holidays

Nearly 71 million overnight stays in the Netherlands

The average length of stay is nearly 10 days for a long domestic holiday and nearly 12 days for a long foreign holiday. As a result of the reduced number domestic holidays, the number of overnight stays during long domestic holidays dropped from nearly 74 million in 2009 to 71 million in 2011. The number of overnight stays abroad remained fairly stable at approximately 176 million in recent years.

Over 15 billion euro spent on holidays

The Dutch spent 15.2 billion euro on long and short domestic and foreign holidays in 2011. They spent 2.8 billion euro in the Netherlands and 12.4 billion euro abroad. Holiday spending during the summer period rose from 9.2 billion euro in 2009 to 9.6 billion euro in 2011. Tourist spending during the winter period declined from 5.9 to 5.5 billion euro.

Holiday spending by season

Henk Swinkels