Three quarters through the year, it’s time to take a look at Luxembourg for Tourism’s market intelligence insights for January to August 2023. This is an overview of provisional figures for 2023 (year-to-date), key take aways from the latest Hotel & Camping survey, as well as a look at current search and booking data to give us in indication of what tourism in Luxembourg might look like for the rest of the year.
As a recap, Luxembourg’s primary target markets are France, Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Our secondary markets extend southwards to Spain and Italy, across to Austria, and up to Ireland and Denmark, all populations which show a growing interest in our destination.
We currently compare to 2019, in other words pre-Covid times when tourism numbers were at a high.
The provisional figures show that the number of overnight stays by source markets varies considerably, but that compared to 2019, arrivals from The Netherlands, France, Germany and Switzerland are above the 2019 level.
The hotel occupancy rate forecast is 68% for August, 75% for September, and 73% for October. Overall demand for future hotel stays is currently 2% below both 2022 and 2019, with a slightly more positive trend for city hotels.
The performance gap between leisure and business bookings has almost closed for the coming months. Since the pandemic, the uptake of business bookings had previously been slower than leisure bookings.
In general, there remains untapped growth potential for October, and a strong leisure demand for Christmas time, with already above-average hotel and flight booking levels in December.
The relative search interest for Luxembourg is higher than at this time in 2022 for visitors looking for a hiking experience (especially from Belgium and France) and for city breaks (especially from Austria, Spain and Italy).
When it comes to campsites, the occupancy rate forecast is 80% for August, 47% for September, and 27% for October. Campsite bookings for September are +16% vs. 2022, hinting at an exceptionally positive late season.
Inflation and labour shortages are still identified as the current key challenges for both hotels and campsites. One third of campsites but 82% of hotels expect a loss in profit in 2023 despite higher turnover, and we can expect to see a further increase in room rates.
If you own or manage a hotel or campsite and would like to take part in our Hotels and Campsites surveys, or if you would like any further insights, please contact us.
