About 50 holiday homes housing 200 to 300 people were evacuated on Saturday afternoon in Waimes and Bütgenbach due to the High Fens wildfire, according to Mario Cabanas, chief executive of the tourism company Ardennes-étape which manages about 200 holiday homes in the affected area.
Sunday was devoted to monitoring the situation on the ground, while Monday focused on handling around 350 new holidaymakers due to arrive, according to the tourism operator.
Ardennes-étape said it had recorded only a small number of cancellations. Other visitors were offered alternative accommodation instead of their original stay.
Even in areas where evacuated residents have been allowed to return home, Ardennes-étape is not yet permitting guests to go back and is not accepting new bookings. The company said its priority was to avoid hindering emergency operations.
Compensation will be assessed on a case-by-case basis, Cabanas added, stressing that only part of the region has been affected by the fires.
Impact on the tourism sector
The High Fens is a major tourist destination that attracts large numbers of visitors each year.
In August 2025, the area recorded 139,913 overnight stays, accounting for 9.5% of all overnight stays in Wallonia that month, according to figures from the office of Walloon Tourism Minister Valérie Lescrenier.
Lescrenier visited the region on Monday with her German-speaking counterpart, Gregor Freches, to show support for the sector.
The ministers said the authorities were also focused on providing “reliable and co-ordinated” information and on preventing the wider destination from suffering economically from what remains a localised crisis.
Lescrenier said an assessment is under way to identify exactly which tourism businesses have been affected, how many visitors have been impacted, the consequences for bookings and the main difficulties being faced.
Information, also relayed by the East Cantons Tourism Agency, will be centralised on the VISITWallonia website.
The site is intended to serve as a single point of access for visitors and operators, with updates on the situation, the areas affected and accommodation options outside those zones, the minister’s office said.
