Hotels along Belgium’s coast recorded 525,000 overnight stays during the May-Day long weekend, according to Westtoer, the provincial tourism agency for West Flanders.
The highest number of overnight stays—200,000—occurred from Friday night to Saturday, marking the most activity since the start of the year.
Coastal hotels saw an average occupancy rate of around 90%, which exceeded expectations for the weekend.
Westtoer also reported 160,000 day-trippers at the coast on 1 May, down from 180,000 last year.
Across the entire extended weekend, 325,000 visitors were counted on the Belgian coast.
Despite the pleasant weather, swimming in the sea remained prohibited, except in supervised zones at Knokke-Heist and Nieuwpoort.
In 2015, the 1 May weekend generated 630,000 overnight stays, but it lasted four days as the holiday fell on a Thursday that year.
