It goes without saying that lockdown, closed borders and constantly changing travel restrictions in light of the health crisis have left Luxembourg residents with a limited choice of leisure and holiday activities. Unsurprisingly, statistics from the grand duchy’s national geoportal as well as “Luxembourg for Tourism” indicate residents’ increased interest in hiking over the past year, compared to 2019.

The "Mullerthal Trail", for instance, one of Luxembourg’s most well-known hiking trails, characterised by a landscape dotted with rock formations, counted more than 160,000 hikers in 2020, corresponding to an increase of nearly 15,000 visitors compared to the previous year. The "Escapardenne", a long hiking trail that stretches over 158 kilometres to cover the Belgian-Luxembourg Ardennes in several stages, has experienced a similar development, with a 25% increase in visitors. 

The trend has also been noticeable online, with statistics revealing that sub-headings of the "hiking trails" category on the geoportal.lu website have experienced an average doubling of page views. Similarly, page views concerning the section "paths autopédestres" increased by 189% (211,383 page views in 2020 against 73,154 page views in 2019), those for the "CFL from station to station" section have spiked to 32,519 in 2020 versus 14,396 in 2019 whereas page views for the thematic trails section have also experienced a remarkable uptick, with 25,583 in 2020 versus 10,303 the previous year.

"Luxembourg for tourism" registered similar tendencies with a 75.50% increase of page views on articles relating to hiking on the visitluxembourg.com website. 

Tourism minister, Lex Delles (DP), in a press release, pointed out that "the impressive statistics show that hiking is booming in Luxembourg. In this context, it should be noted that the number of tourists visiting Luxembourg decreased in 2020 due to the impact of the covid-19 pandemic, which leads to the conclusion that the increase in interest in hiking is mainly due to residents. Walking around the country seems to have been one of the favourite leisure activities of Grand Duchy residents in 2020, and rightly so. Hiking is certainly the best way to (re-)discover Luxembourg.

The €50 hospitality vouchers provided to all Luxembourg residents as well as cross-border workers by the tourism directorate in 2020 to encourage local tourism have certainly added to the increased interest in hiking as local tourists were able to upgrade their afternoon walks to little staycations by using their vouchers in one of the participating hotels.  

However, the question that inevitably arises is whether residents’ newly discovered appreciation for the grand duchy’s stunning nature, including the many hiking trails, will keep its momentum once travel restrictions and the like will be a thing of the past. 

Asked about its predictions for 2021, the ORT Mullerthal, at the end of last year, told Delano that 2020 and its exceptional circumstances had created a new awareness of the many beautiful places across Luxembourg, “an eye-opening experience” that will spur more people to opt for staycations and local weekend getaways in the future. 

Want to know what the fuss is all about? Have a look at www.100thingstodo.lu for some of the most popular trails, put your hiking shoes on and see for yourself.