France & Benelux
France
In 2018, France was once again the most popular tourist destination of all nations with around 93.6 tourist arrivals.
Home to world-famous sites and host to major international events, France is a leading tourist market for the European travel industry. Both domestic and international tourism have a significant impact on the French economy. In 2016 travel and tourism contributed a total of 198.3 billion Euros to GDP in France, while tourism employment created 2.8 billion jobs, both directly and indirectly.
Number of trips abroad from France in year 2017 are mounted up to 53 Million. Expenditure on outbound travel packages in France in the year 2015 added up to 9.7 billion euro.
The intensity of travelling abroad is marked by 75.7%
Population France: 67.4 million, status 2018
Belgium
Last year, 2018, Belgians made 20.5 million trips of at least one night.
In 2018, almost two thirds of the Belgian population travelled at least once (64%). 12.15 million trips took 4 nights or more. In 5% of these cases, travel is for business reasons.
In total, Belgians travelled 19 million times during their holidays.
For short trips of 1 to 3 nights, Belgium is the most important destination (41%), followed by France (22%) and the Netherlands (14%). Almost all these trips (98%) take place within the borders of the European Union.
For longer trips of 4 nights or more, France comes first (24%), Belgium and Spain end with an ex aequo (14%). 84% of these trips are to a country in the European Union.
Population Belgium: 11.4 million, as of 2018
Source: Statbel
Netherlands
After years of recession, the total amount of travel trips will show a moderate growth again between 2014 and 2018, while growth is expected to further increase after 2018.
The growth of the travel industry is expected to further increase after 2020. The travel industry contributed 5.9% of total GDP in 2013. The industry’s contribution to total GDP is expected to further increase to 7.3% in 2024. 79% of outbound trips from The Netherlands is leisure related and 21% is business related.
Dutch travelers show different spending behavior across continents with a clear preference for total package deals in Africa and ‘accommodation only’ in Europe. Companies should provide personalized offerings that are based on a deep understanding of customer behavior to increase the share of wallet of leisure travelers. Data-driven insights will help them to achieve this.
As the global population is quickly rising in numbers and wealth, the ‘global customer’ becomes a new target group for travel companies with an international market perspective. The age segment of 65-80 will show the largest growth in the next decade. As this segment has time and money for travel, it becomes an increasingly attractive target group for travel companies. Engage this segment by offering them a total travel package, as this generation of people values peace of mind, trust, and transparency, as well as having everything ‘arranged properly’.
Population Netherland: 17.18 million, as of 2018
Source: ANVR
