France will remain the favorite holiday destination for Belgians in 2025, significantly ahead of the Netherlands, Spain and Italy, according to final statistics published by Statbell.
Last year, Belgians took 31.2 million trips lasting at least one night, according to a report from the Belgian Statistics Authority.
The majority of these trips were for personal reasons such as leisure, vacation, or visiting family and friends.
Surprisingly, only 6% were for business purposes. Compared to pre-COVID-19 numbers, business travel appears to be recovering much more slowly than leisure travel, suggesting that Zoom and remote work may have permanently changed the way some international business is done.
Of the 1.9 million business trips undertaken by Belgians in 2025, 18% were within the country’s borders. France was the top destination for overseas business trips, with 366,000 trips to neighboring countries. Germany followed with 229,000 and the Netherlands with 207,000.
Between 44,000 and 79,000 trips were made to Italy and Spain, as well as destinations outside Europe, including Africa, Asia and North America.
Overall, almost a third of all trips, or 9.4 million, took place within Belgium. The Ardennes and Belgian coast were the most popular destinations, accounting for 2.9 million tourists each.
1.1 million people visited the City of Arts.
France was by far the favorite place for Belgians to travel abroad with 6.86 million trips, compared to 2.63 million trips to the Netherlands and 2.22 million trips to Spain.
Excluding the top three destinations, that number has dropped significantly. Italy and Germany recorded 1.45 million and 1.44 million trips respectively, followed by Morocco (nearly 700,000), the United Kingdom (660,000) and Portugal (558,000).
The report found that city holidays (35%) are as popular with Belgians as seaside holidays (32%) and trips to the countryside (31%). The mountains were less popular, accounting for only 12% of trips, but some might say this number is not surprising for travelers from Western Europe. plat pay.
You would expect that the majority of trips were domestic or to neighboring countries, with almost two-thirds (19.1 million) taken by car, motorbike or campervan. Air travel was second, accounting for 7.8 million trips.
Cars are by far the most popular mode of transportation in Belgium, accounting for 83% of trips. Belgians don’t seem to be very interested in public transport when traveling around the country. 12% took the train and only 3% took the bus.
However, it is interesting to note that for 39% of trips to Belgian ‘art cities’, trains were the main mode of transport.
In contrast, it was used on only 5% of trips to the Ardennes and 12% of trips to the coast.