The holiday market has still not recovered from the financial crisis and fewer people went away this year, according to new figures from NBTC-NIPO Research.

This year, the 17 million Dutch went on 35 million holidays, 500,000 fewer than a year ago, the research shows.

The drop is due to an increasing number of people not going on holiday at all. Those who do go away, continue to have 2.8 holidays a year.

It is the first time since 2000 that over 20% of the population have not had a holiday, the research shows.

The downward shift is apparent in both holidays at home and abroad. Germany was the most popular foreign destination, followed by France, Spain and Belgium.