Despite the threat of coronavirus, the tourist sector of the Belgian Coast has seen flocks of weekend holidaymakers spend the long weekend at the coast, said Tuesday the provincial tourist office Westtoer.
Almost 1.1 million overnight stays were recorded in total, with reports that Coronavirus-related measures were generally well followed.
Hotels recorded 18% more reservations than last week, while 446,000 day tourists headed to the North Sea for the national holiday weekend. Despite cloudier weather, Sunday was the busiest day, with 133,000 day-trippers. Westtoer expects 12,000 people to attend on Tuesday, the national holiday.
Coastal municipalities have adopted certain mechanisms to manage the influx in these times of coronavirus, such as in Ostend where a reservation system has been set up for three particularly popular beaches. "There were no surprises and holidaymakers followed the measures well. The geographical and temporal distribution is important," says Westtoer's managing director. "The extended weekend is already a boost for the beach tourism sector."
Westtoer's online visitor barometer- which allows holidaymakers to avoid crowded areas - has already been consulted some 865,000 times. This weekend, as last weekend, the barometer map was predominantly green, which means that the situation was "calm" and "pleasant". The centres of La Panne, Koksijde, Le Coq, Blankenberg and Knokke were classified yellow for "lively".
The Brussels Times
