Last year eight out of ten Luxembourg residents took at least one vacation, adding up to nearly 1.4 million leisure trips, the Grand Duchy’s statistics bureau has said.

Only 3% of vacation nights were spent in the Grand Duchy in 2012, and more than nine out of ten tourist travel nights abroad were spent in Europe, according a Statec report issued Monday.

Nearly half of international travel was to a neighbouring country. France was by far the most popular destination country (23% of tourist travel nights), outpacing Germany (15%), Belgium (9%), Spain (8%) and Italy (7%). The UK was the 9th most popular (3% of tourist travel nights).

Outside of Europe, 3% went to Africa, predominantly Tunisia, while around 2% went to North America and 2% to Asia.

In 2012 the average vacation budget was €1,754 per trip and €735 per person.

All together Luxembourg residents spent approximately €1.9 billion, including €376 million in France, €254 million in Spain, €290 million in Germany, €73 million in Belgium and €500 million outside of Europe.

Of those heading to Benelux countries, 78% went by car, while 70% of those heading to France and Germany hit the road, and 59% of leisure travellers to other European countries flew.

Findel handled more than half of tourist flights

Luxembourg’s Findel airport served 58% of tourist passengers last year, followed by Frankfurt Hahn (15%), Charleroi (9%), Frankfurt Main (5%) and Brussels Capital (4%) airports.

Among airlines, Luxair held the largest market share (38%), ahead of Ryanair (34%), Lufthansa (5%), Air France (4%) and British Airways (3%).

The 17th annual study was conducted for Statec by Trier-based market research firm T.I.P. Biehl & Partner, which polled 1,500 randomly selected residents by phone each quarter. Business travel was explicitly excluded from the survey.