Compared to previous years, more Dutch people want to go on holiday next summer. Foreign holidays are particularly popular. Spain is the most popular, followed by France and Italy. This is evident from large-scale consumer research conducted by Trends & Tourism at the end of January/beginning of February into holiday plans of a week or more for next summer. More than three-quarters of the Dutch (77%) say they definitely/probably want to go on holiday next summer. About 10% are still undecided and 13% do not expect to go. In previous years, the share of Dutch people planning a summer holiday was 75% and 68% respectively. Higher educated people and young people in particular want to go out next summer. More than 70% of the Dutch with plans for next summer want to go abroad, 23% choose their own country and 6% have not yet made a choice between their own country and abroad. Spain (17%), France (12%) and Italy (10%) are the most popular foreign destinations this summer. A sun/sea/beach holiday is the most popular (43%), followed by a round trip (17%). The study also mapped out the extent to which intended holidays have already been booked. ‘Of all planned holidays abroad, 40% have already been booked’, says research director Kees van der Most to TravMagazine. ‘This is more than this time last year, which indicates increasing consumer confidence. Although there are big differences according to destination, booking method and holiday type. For example, about 70% of the proposed plans for Portugal still have to be booked, while for Turkey this is less than half.’ Trends & Tourism also investigated whether the increased likelihood of extreme weather as a result of climate change would influence the choice of destination. That hardly appears to be the case. Most Dutch people do not take into account the chance of extreme weather when choosing their holiday destination. One in five say they take this into account to some extent and 6% quite a lot. For the time being, the chance of extreme weather does not lead to significantly different destination choices, says the research agency. Photo: Kees van der Most (Archive photo TravMagazine).
