Residents’ interest in Luxembourg as a tourist destination peaked in 2020 but the phenomenon seems unlikely to last, says Statec Photo: Matic Zorman / Masion Moderne

Residents’ interest in Luxembourg as a tourist destination peaked in 2020 but the phenomenon seems unlikely to last, says Statec Photo: Matic Zorman / Masion Moderne

In 2020, the number of nights spent by tourists in Luxembourg increased sixfold for residents. Luxembourg statistics body Statec credits the €50 euro voucher scheme launched by the government.

Local tourism is doing well: in 2020, 89,117 overnight stays were recorded in the grand duchy by residents, six times more than in 2019,  published on Monday show.

The choice of Luxembourg was made at the expense of other destinations: overnight stays fell by 63% in Germany, 53% in Spain, 37% in Portugal and 32% in France, which nevertheless remains the leading destination with 169,361 overnight stays by Luxembourg residents.

To justify this desire to travel within the grand duchy, 63% of residents cite the €50 voucher granted in the summer of 2020 by the government, far ahead of the desire to help local tourism (42%) and the covid-19 pandemic (35%).

But once they’ve spent their €50 voucher, where will they go? In any case, Luxembourg does not seem to have seduced them: only 19% intend to have another vacation in the grand duchy, while 43% believe that they will not repeat the “staycation”.

Among those who are reluctant to holiday inside the country again, almost one in two (47%) say that Luxembourg does not have what they are looking for in terms of holidays. “It can be said that the grand duchy is perceived as being too small to offer the advantages of an attractive tourist destination,” concludes Statec.

However, the statistics institute stresses that there is still room for developing local tourism: almost half of residents have never had a getaway with an overnight stay inside the country and almost a quarter have never stayed closer than 300 km from the country.

Finally, it should be noted that local tourism also includes day trips without an overnight stay: the number of such trips increased by 57% over the past year to 2.2 million units. The main reason for these outings are sporting activities such as hiking and walking, which have been very popular in recent months. This reason is cited by three quarters of respondents, three times more than visits to family or friends.