The Dutch again booked massive holidays in February. Compared to February 2019, the number of bookings increased by 18 percent. Belgium and the United Kingdom are especially popular. Holidays to Turkey are less popular, following the major earthquakes there.
A record number of holidays were already booked in January and we were also busy arranging travel in February. The trend of carefree booking continued,” says director Frank Oostdam of the travel industry association ANVR.
Turkey was booked 28 percent less than in February 2019. And also 19 percent less than in February last year. According to Oostdam, this decrease has to do with the earthquakes in southeastern Turkey at the beginning of last month. The earthquakes killed more than 50,000 people. Oostdam sees the demand for Turkey as a holiday destination slowly picking up again in March.
The number of bookings increased most for trips to Belgium (plus 71 percent), the UK (plus 27 percent) and Denmark (plus 25 percent). The traditional holiday countries France and Italy were also popular, with 11 percent and 23 percent more bookings respectively.