Almost half a million overnight stays at the coast during Whitsun weekend
The long Whitsun Weekend has seen tourists flocking to the coastal resorts of West Flanders in their droves. Hotels, guest houses and self-catering accommodation at the coast recorded a total of 490,000 overnight stays on Friday, Saturday and Sunday night, a rise of 8% on the Whitsun weekend last year.
The figures were released by the West Flemish Tourist Board Westtoer on Monday. As was the case during the long Ascension weekend at the end of May around 30% of those that stayed overnight at the Flemish Coast were visitors from Wallonia and Brussels.
Although the figures are generally good, they do nevertheless present a mixed picture when you look at them more closely. For example, the occupancy rates of between 75% and 80% for hotels at the coast during the Whitsun weekend was 10% lower than it was during the Ascension weekend.
A Westtoer representative told the press agency Belga that “The fairly unstable weather certainly had a lot to do with it. However, the situation varied from place to place with some hotels reporting stable figures and others a slight fall in occupancy”.
While tourists from Wallonia and Brussels still accounted for 30% of bookings last weekend they were less well-represented in our coastal resorts than was the case during the Easter vacation period. Then 40% of overstays were booked by tourists from Belgium’s other two regions. During the Whitsun weekend, many owners of second homes visit them to enjoy the sea, sand and other delights of our coastal resorts.