Despite the crisis, the Dutch go on holiday more often
In total, the Dutch took almost 2012 million holidays in 37: 18,1 million holidays were spent in their own country and about 18,6 million holidays abroad.
The Dutch spent almost 16 billion euros on their holidays. Compared to last year, the number of holidays increased slightly, while spending on travel and residence have decreased.
This is evident from the annual results of the ContinuVakantieOnderzoek (CVO) of NBTC-NIPO Research.
Slightly more holidays in our own country
The number of domestic holidays increased by about 400.000 holidays in the past holiday year to 18,1 million (+2%). This growth was entirely due to short hotel holidays. This number grew by more than half a million to a record of 3,9 million holidays (+17%). The number of camping holidays fell - partly due to the moderate summer weather - by 6% to 4,6 million holidays. The number of holidays in a bungalow remained stable at around 6,7 million. As in previous years, the North Sea resorts were the most popular region in the Netherlands; the number of holidays rose by 5% to 2,3 million. The Veluwe also attracted more holidaymakers (+11%) and took second place with 2,1 million holidays. The Groningen, Frisian and Drentse sandy soils are in third place with almost 2 million holidays.
Number of foreign holidays stable
The number of holidays abroad has stabilized at 18,6 million in the past year. Compared to last year, the number of holidays to the Mediterranean grew by about 5 percent, while the number of holidays to the rest of Europe fell by about 2 percent. The number of long journeys stabilized. Just like last year, Germany leads the top ten foreign holiday destinations. About 3,4 million holidays were spent with our eastern neighbours, which means an increase of 2 percent compared to 2011. France, which is in second place, saw the number of holidays fall by 5 percent to 2,8 million holidays. Belgium takes third place with more than 1,8 million holidays.
Lower average travel sum
The average travel sum (these are prepaid amounts for accommodation and/or transport) was 286 euros per person per holiday last holiday year. Compared to 2011, this is a decrease of about 3 percent. In total, the Dutch spent about 15,7 billion euros on their holidays in 2012. More than 2,8 billion of this amount was spent on domestic holidays and 12,9 billion on foreign holidays.