Belgians spent 26.3% less if they did travel in 2020

Households
Belgians spent 26.3% less if they did travel in 2020

In the corona year 2020, Belgians made 11.4 million trips, a decrease of just under 50% compared to 2019.
Belgians travelled not only less, but also less far: the average distance of a trip, 720 km, was over 300 km shorter than in previous years. In 2020, 72% travelled by car and only 18% by plane, whereas in previous years the figure was around 60% for the car and 30% for the plane.

Less than half of the fellow Belgians (46%) made a trip with at least one overnight stay. In 2019, this figure was still 70%. 34% took a trip abroad (64% in 2019).

The main reason for not travelling was the government's recommendations: 57% of the countrymen who stayed at home gave this as the main reason for not travelling. Financial reasons were important for some population groups: single-parent families (47%) and unemployed people (40%) stayed at home for lack of money.

G-Trav2020_en

The number of trips abroad in 2020 was 59% lower than in the previous year and the number of overnight stays halved. Domestic trips decreased by 20%, but the number of overnight stays in our country only decreased by 6.5%. In the Ardennes in particular, the number of overnight stays was 30% higher than in 2019 (5.9 million): people clearly opted more for longer trips in the south of the country.

Travel budget

Belgians also spent a lot less than in 2019: the average expenditure per trip decreased by 150 euros, which is 26.3% less than the year before. Belgians spent about 24% of the budget on transport costs, almost 41% on accommodation expenses and about 24% on meals. About 10% other expenses complete the picture.

The average expenditure per day was even 33% lower than in 2019; Belgians spent €28 less per day.

  2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Number of trips (in millions) 19.6 18.6 20.5 22.7 11.4
Number of overnight stays (in millions) 136.6 123.6 147.4 152.7 84.0
Number of domestic trips (in millions) 3.8 4.0 4.9 5.4 4.3
Number of domestic overnight stays (in millions) 15.5 13.7 19.9 18.6 17.4
Number of trips abroad (in millions) 15.8 14.6 15.6 17.3 7.1
Number of overnight stays abroad (in millions) 121.2 109.9 127.4 134.1 66.5
Share of car 59.4% 58.5% 59.0% 58.8% 71.9%
Share of aeroplane 28.8% 30.8% 29.3% 29.8% 17.8%
Share of other means of transportation 11.8% 10.6% 11.7% 11.4% 10.2%
Average expenditure per trip (€) 590 540 550 570 420
Average expenditure per day (€) 85 81 76 84 56
average distance (km) 1,020 1,030 1,040 1,050 720
participation rate - 66.0% 68.8% 69.6% 45.6%
participation rate (abroad) - 58.9% 61.4% 63.9% 33.9%