More campsite guests in first half of 2018

© ANP
In the first six months of 2018, Dutch campsites accommodated almost 1.6 million guests, 7.5 percent more than in the same period last year. The sharpest increase in this period was represented by foreign guests. This is reported by Statistics Netherlands (CBS).

The increased number of overnight stays on campsites in the first six months of 2018 is in sharp contrast with the preceding years, when it mainly showed a downward trend. Last year, the number of campsite guests still showed a year-on-year decline by 3.5 percent. The province of Groningen in particular received more guests in the first half of 2018 (13 thousand, +48.1 percent). However, the total number of campsite guests in Groningen was still considerably smaller than in the province of Gelderland, which had the highest number of campsite visitors: 256 thousand guests in the first six months, 31 thousand more than in the same period one year previously.

Mostly Germans and Belgians at Dutch campsites

In the first six months of the year, the number of foreign guests at Dutch campsites rose more sharply (9.1 percent) than the number of Dutch guests (6.9 percent) relative to one year previously. Germans (77 percent) and Belgians (12 percent) constituted the largest share of foreign campsite guests. The number of German guests grew by 9 percent in the first half of this year, whereas the number of Belgian guests grew by 14 percent.

Also more guests at hotels and group accommodations

Other types of overnight accommodations as well saw growth in the number of overnight guests. In the first half year, the number of people staying at group accommodations stood at 779 thousand, 9.1 percent more than in the previous year. Hotels accommodated 14.5 million guests, a rise by 6.1 percent. Even greater growth was seen in the number of overnight stays by business travellers, namely by 8.3 percent.

Number of guests at holiday parks barely increased

Compared to the preceding year, there was negligible growth in the number of travellers staying at holiday parks in the first six months of 2018 (+1.2 percent). The number of Dutch guests even decreased slightly (0.3 percent).

More foreign tourists in Dutch overnight accommodations

In total, 21.0 million guests visited Dutch overnight accommodations in the first six months of this year, 5.3 percent up on the same period of 2017. The number of foreign guests grew at a considerably higher rate (6.3 percent) than the number of Dutch guests (4.6 percent).

Sources

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