Taking a short trip or two-week holiday may be commonplace for most. However, almost 2.5 million people in Belgium cannot afford to take time off – even for just one week. In Brussels, one in three people do not go on holiday.
As with everything, the cost of going on holiday has increased in recent years. However, this doesn't seem to have stopped Belgian residents from going on holiday, sometimes even several times a year. Others save on other expenses to travel abroad.
However, for more than one fifth of the Belgian population, it is financially impossible to afford a week's holiday. This amounts to almost 2.5 million people who cannot afford a trip abroad, the first results of Belgian statistical agency Statbel's 2023 Income and Living Conditions Survey (EU-SILC) showed.
People in the Brussels-Capital Region are most affected: 36.4% cannot afford a week-long holiday. The situation is similar in Wallonia, where 31.5% indicated a holiday is not feasible for them. In Flanders, this figure is significantly lower (13.5%).
Those aged 16 to 24 are least likely to be able to afford a holiday (25%). The unemployed (46.5%), tenants (46%), members of single-parent families (44.7%) and low-skilled workers (40.4%) are also significantly less likely to do so.
In contrast, people between the ages of 65 and 74 find it much easier to take time off to travel (18.9%).
