Belgians flock to the coast for winter holidays and New Year’s dip

The tourism sector of the Belgian coast enjoyed a successful winter holiday period, with 1.7 million overnight stays recorded, about 3% more than last year.

Provincial tourism agency Westtoer said the second week of holidays attracted many tourists, as did the weekends following Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

Hotels recorded an occupancy rate of 45% and New Year's Eve saw 80%. Many last-minute bookings were also made, with a quarter of hotel rooms booked after the start of the winter holidays.

The majority of tourists who spent at least one night in the area were Belgian, just under a quarter were Walloon and 17% of tourists were foreign.

The coast also proved to be a popular destination for day trips, attracting some 750,000 people, or an increase of 4% compared to last year.

The most popular days were Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 December, with about 85,000 tourists each day.

The traditional New Year’s Day dip on Saturday afternoon in Ostend was also popular, with more than 4,500 people taking the plunge into the North Sea despite an outside temperature of just 2°C and freezing water.

This year’s "polar bear plunge" drew around 300 more participants than last year, many of whom wore original accessories or costumes.

“This edition was the most difficult to date, due to extreme weather conditions,” said the organisers, noting a wind chill factor of -3°C.

“The organisers consulted for several days to assess the weather conditions as accurately as possible. Despite initial estimates, the conditions on site turned out to be even more extreme.”

For safety reasons, the diving depth was limited. There were five minor incidents requiring immediate warming up after the dive, but otherwise everything went smoothly.

“The New Year's Day dip brings together the residents of Ostend and visitors to start the year off right,” said Ostend’s mayor John Crombez (Vooruit).