Last year, Schiphol was still the most popular during the May holiday. Then it was a huge chaos at the airport.
Dutch people who have been booking a flight for a few weeks now more often choose to depart from Düsseldorf than from Schiphol. It is the first time that the German airport is more popular than Amsterdam. Most holidaymakers will fly to Turkey and Spain in the coming weeks. They stay there for an average of 8 days and mainly book all-inclusive holidays.
This is evident from the Zoover Holiday Monitor. Based on 30 million annual visitors, more than 3,8 million reviews, 1 million accommodations and 12.000 package holidays from all providers, the review and booking site can make an accurate analysis of the search and booking behavior of Dutch holidaymakers.
Dusseldorf airport.
Based on bookings for air travel throughout 2023, Schiphol is still the most popular airport. 39% of the Dutch choose Amsterdam, slightly less than last year's 42%. Düsseldorf is in second place with 28% of the holidays by air, slightly more than last year's 25%. However, the roles have been reversed in the last weeks before the May holiday. In the past period, 34% booked a flight from Düsseldorf and only 33% from Schiphol. Cologne (14%), Rotterdam (8%), Eindhoven (7,5%) and Brussels (3%) follow at an appropriate distance.
Last year, Schiphol was still the most popular during the May holiday. Then it was a huge chaos at the airport. Staff shortages in security and baggage handling led to long waiting times and some holidaymakers missed their flights. “That fear is still there among travelers. Moreover, the airport receives a lot of negative attention in the media. The consumer chooses to avoid these kinds of problems,” says Sterre Hoek van Zoover.
Another reason is that many air holidays to popular destinations such as Turkey and Egypt depart from German airports such as Düsseldorf. The top four of May holidays is the same as last year. Number one is Turkey with 39% of the bookings (last year 44%), Spain second with 34% (last year 29%), Greece third with 18% (same as last year) and Egypt fourth with 5 % (previous year 4%). “Due to the news about the earthquakes, there are fewer bookings for Turkey, but that has started to pick up again in recent weeks,” says Hoek.
One third of the Dutch go on an eight-day May holiday. One in twenty people goes for fifteen days. More than half of the booked holidays are all-inclusive, according to Zoover data. Last year it was 53%, this year already 56%. Hoek: “All-inclusive was already the most popular type of May holiday and that is often the standard in Turkey. Inflation and all the price increases make this even more popular, because then families know exactly what they have spent on the holiday.”
The average travel sum that the Dutch have spent in recent weeks for the holiday is 2218 euros. Last year it was still 2014 euros. Calculated from January, the average travel sum of bookings has risen in a year from 1948 to 2026 euros, an increase of more than 13%, according to the monitor.
