These are the favourite holiday destinations for summer 2024

This weekend, the summer holidays in the Netherlands started in region South. Region Central and North will follow in the coming weeks. That the beautiful weather in southern Europe is a big attraction is clear given the destination choice of holidaymakers. Where are the Dutch travelling to this summer holiday? TUI lists favourite destinations and holiday types.

A very recent survey of 2,700 Dutch people by the independent Trends & Tourism gives a picture of the motivations behind holiday choices. TUI complements this with an overview of destinations that are actually booked.

Air holidays in Europe:

Within these countries, of course, there are many holiday destinations. When you zoom in on that, the Antalya region of Turkey is where most travellers go. Even nearly 10% more than last summer.
The second largest destination is the Spanish island of Gran Canaria, a popular holiday destination not only in winter but also in summer, with a wide variety of accommodation and a fairly constant temperature throughout the year.
It is also striking that Kos is the Greek island with the most Dutch guests, ahead of Crete, the largest and perhaps best-known island for Dutch holidaymakers. And that while Kos is not even among the 10 largest Greek islands in terms of surface area.
TUI sees no shift to 'cooler' flight destinations such as the Azores, that number of travellers remains about the same as last summer.

The Trends & Tourism survey indicates that despite recent media coverage of extreme weather, almost all air holidaymakers plan to continue travelling to the Mediterranean in the future. However, the largest group does expect to travel more often in early and late season. 

Long-haul flights

Curaçao is by far the biggest destination within long-haul air holidays. From next winter, TUI will even add flights from Brussels, also interesting for travellers in the south of the Netherlands.

The strongest growing for a few years now is Zanzibar, which is steaming fast to the top of this list of faraway destinations. Combining a safari on mainland Tanzania or Kenya with a beach stay on Zanzibar, is appealing to many travellers.

Car holidays

Holidaymakers travelling to Italy by car mainly stay at Lake Garda and Tuscany. Slovenia is relatively unknown, but is attracting more and more travellers and is making the biggest growth spurt in numbers of car holidaymakers.

Looking at 'cooler' countries such as the Netherlands, Germany and Austria, TUI does not observe higher numbers of holidaymakers compared to last year, but an equal level. Denmark remains popular for family holidays, especially Jutland and that has a lot to do with the presence of Legoland.

City trips

Valencia is undisputedly the favourite city for a city break in summer. And New York comes in from the bottom of the top ten last summer, now in second place. This popularity may also have to do with the offer of two major hotels from the RIU chain, well-known and loved by Dutch holidaymakers in many holiday destinations.

Paris was still the favourite city break in summer last year, but has more than halved in terms of city travellers. This is mainly caused by the Olympics; hoteliers gave out very limited rooms to tour operators and at sky-high prices. This makes the holidaying city traveller shun Paris next summer.

Link to Trends & Tourism survey:  https://www.trends-tourism.nl/