More overnight stays in Flanders

21 May 2007

BRUSSELS – For the first time in years the number of overnight stays by foreign tourists in Flanders has increased.

This has emerged from figures for the first 11 months of 2006 released by the Flemish minister for tourism on Monday.

The number of overnight stays increased by 4 percent, while overall incoming tourism increased by almost 6 percent in 2006.

The figures are for January through November 2006 but the minister does not expect that the month of December will have a great effect on the overall picture.

He reported these figures at the presentation of the “Tourist Profile,” a publication by Tourism Flanders which sketches a profile of the tourists that come to Flanders from neighbouring countries.

Flanders and Brussels together saw 9.3 million recreational overnight stays by foreign tourists. The Dutch, Germans, British and French accounted for 77 percent of these stays.

Subject: Belgian news