One in five people in the Netherlands booked a foreign holiday during January as holidaymakers look forward to the first summer in three years with no pandemic restrictions.

The travel trade association ANVR said more than three million trips were booked through its members, a record for the first month of the year.

A panel survey of 40,000 consumers by GfK indicated that bookings were up by 50% compared to last year and 13% higher than in 2019.

‘The travel restrictions that were introduced during the coronavirus pandemic hit the travel trade hard,’ Frank Oostdam, director of the ANVR, told RTL Nieuws.

‘Whereas in recent years the uncertainty around coronavirus meant Dutch people waited longer to book their summer holidays, the first months of the year are now as busy as they ever were,’ said Martine Langerak, spokeswoman for travel agent Sunweb.

Around 83% of foreign holidays booked were within Europe, with Italy, Greece, Croatia and the UK the most popular destinations, as well as neighbouring countries Belgium and Germany.