Tourist arrivals in Belgium 2019-2020, by country of origin

Due to the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the number of tourist arrivals in Belgium decreased sharply in 2020 over the previous year. In 2019, domestic tourists made up most tourist arrivals in Belgium, with approximately 8.7 million arrivals. In 2020, the number of domestic arrivals dropped to about 4.8 million. Meanwhile, the number of arrivals by Dutch tourists in Belgium went down from approximately two million in 2019 to roughly 742 thousand in 2020.

The tourism sector in Belgium

The total contribution of travel and tourism to GDP in Belgium was 17 billion euros in 2020. There was a marked decrease when compared to the previous years, due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Foreign and domestic tourists

Domestic and international tourism in Belgium had very different responses to the events that affected the industry in 2019 and 2020. The spending of international tourists in Belgian territory amounted to roughly 10 billion in 2019, and saw a strong drop in 2020. Meanwhile, the spending of domestic tourists went down from over 18 billion euros in 2019 to less than 10 billion in 2020.