Belgian coast anticipates high number of visitors over long weekend

The Belgian coast is expecting an influx of visitors during the long weekend of 15 August, with good weather and high temperatures expected.

The average hotel occupancy rate for the coming weekend is between 85% and 95%, according to figures from West Flanders tourist office Westtoer, with a peak of 95% for Friday and Saturday nights.

A large number of day-trippers and second home owners are also expected, and Belgian railway operator SNCB will be running additional trains to and from the coast for travellers.

The upturn in activity is welcome news for coastal tourism, which had a less successful second half of July.

Last weekend was so far the best weekend, with some 480,000 tourist overnight stays recorded – 2% more than on the weekend of 21 July.

In hotels, the average occupancy rate was between 85% and 90% last weekend and 330,000 day-trippers visited.

There were 110,000 visitors on Monday 11 August and 130,000 on Tuesday.