The average travel sum that Dutch people pay for their holiday has increased by 16 percent this year. One in eight Dutch people now indicate that they go on holiday less often or spend less. The price increase is mainly in the plane tickets. Accommodations also became slightly more expensive (+2,5%). This is evident from the Zoover Holiday Monitor.
On the other hand, people who do go on holiday are booking earlier and earlier. In the past month, 24 percent more May and summer holidays were booked than in the same period last year.
The monitor is compiled based on an analysis of the search and booking behaviour of the 30 million annual visitors and the more than 3,9 million reviews on the website Zoover.nl. For the last Holiday Monitor of 2024, the review and booking site also held a special survey on the holiday experiences of the Dutch.
15% go on holiday less often
This shows, among other things, that more than half of the Dutch will go on holiday just as often next year as in other years and will spend just as much or even more. However, 15 percent indicate that they will go on holiday less and 13 percent say they will spend less than in other years. This may be due to the enormous price increases in the past year. An analysis of all bookings shows that the average travel sum has increased by 16 percent this year compared to 2023. For trips to Spain, Turkey, Greece and Egypt, the Dutch pay hundreds of euros more than last year. This higher travel sum is only partly explained by the fact that holidaymakers more often book a more expensive all-inclusive trip, so that they know in advance what to expect and do not have unexpected expenses. "The increase in costs is so fast that a holiday is in danger of becoming inaccessible for some groups of Dutch people," says Reinoud Koot of Zoover. "More expensive airline tickets in particular have a price-raising effect."
Dutch people move to foreign airports
Due to these higher ticket prices, Dutch airports are driving holidaymakers to foreign airports, where ticket prices are lower, the monitor shows. In recent months, the market shares of Schiphol (-6 percent), Eindhoven (-2,3 percent) and Rotterdam (-1,8 percent) fell compared to last year and more Dutch people opted for Düsseldorf (+1,7 percent), Cologne (+2,5 percent), Münster (+2,10 percent) and Charleroi (+2,2 percent).
Early bookings
Against this background, it is striking that the number of bookings in the past month and a half was 24 percent higher than in the same period in 2023. A quarter of people booked their May holiday, mainly in countries such as Turkey and Egypt. One in nine has already booked their summer holiday for 2025, with Spain, Turkey, Greece and Portugal being the most popular flights. Search behaviour shows that France will once again be the most popular holiday destination among the Dutch next year, followed by Spain and the Netherlands.
Holidays are still well prepared (intensive search)
The Zoover survey shows that the Dutch do not book a holiday unprepared. Three quarters of people always read reviews before booking and one in five sometimes. Most people spend half an hour or an hour on this, but a quarter even spend days. Half of the respondents read at least ten reviews before booking a holiday. "This proves that the Dutch clearly study their holiday and do not just book anything", says Koot. If the holiday is disappointing in reality, in a third of the cases it is because the hotel or campsite is disappointing, in a quarter of the cases it is because of personal issues such as arguments and in a quarter of the cases it is because of the environment, according to the survey.
Source and more information: www.zoover.nl