Luxembourg’s tourism is on the path of recovery, but is has enjoyed a slower improvement than the EU average.  Photo: Shutterstock

Luxembourg’s tourism is on the path of recovery, but is has enjoyed a slower improvement than the EU average.  Photo: Shutterstock

For 2021, the grand duchy recorded an increase of tourism activitiy of 11% in comparison to 2020, placing it on the lower end of the EU chart.

published on 14 March showed that in general, the EU had recorded an average 27% increase in tourism in 2021 compared to the previous year. This activity is still 37% below 2019 levels, but shows an improvement in the leisure sector.

After the crisis-induced dip below 1.5bn nights spent in tourist accommodations in the EU in 2020, 1.8bn bookings were recorded for last year.

Southern European countries like Greece (88.7%) and Spain (78.9%) recorded the highest increase, whereas Latvia (-17.6%) and Slovakia (-16.1%) had the hardest time recovering from the pandemic. Luxembourg, with a 40.9% decrease compared to 2019 was among the slower countries to recover and scored below the EU average (27.3%).

Several factors can be pointed out, such as remote working--which reduced the number of business travellers to Luxembourg--and the continuation of sanitary restrictions for much of last year.

The grand duchy, alongside Croatia, with a drop of less than 45%, was the least affected by the decrease in non-resident guests.

Delano has reached out to Luxembourg For Tourism and is awaiting a response.