The number of foreigners coming to the Netherlands this year is 70 percent lower than last year. Nearly 40 percent fewer Dutch people go on holiday in their own country. This brings tourism in the Netherlands back to the level of the nineties. The Netherlands Bureau for Tourism and Conventions (NBTC) paints this gloomy picture on Monday at the opening of the third National Tourism Summit.
Moreover, the holiday plans of the Dutch and visitors from the surrounding countries only decrease further as the year progresses. This is evident from the fourth Holiday Monitor of NBTC and Schiphol, also presented on Monday.
“Where we expected more than 21 million international visitors at the beginning of this year, this is now 14 million fewer”, says Jos Vranken, general manager of NBTC. “In addition, the Dutch also go on holiday less in their own country than last year. These figures are of the level of the 1990s.”
From 7 percent to minus 70 percent
At the beginning of this year, before the corona crisis, the expectation was that 7 percent more visitors would come to the Netherlands, almost 22 million. Partly in connection with the Eurovision Song Contest and the Zandvoort Grand Prix. That has now turned into a minus of 70 percent. Vranken: “With today’s knowledge, we expect less than six million visitors.”
The NBTC director foresees that recovery may not take place until 2024. A quarter of the people who say they still have vacation plans for this year have not yet booked. “And not even half of them are orientating themselves on holidays,” says Vranken. “So the question is whether these people will still go at all, given the increasing number of infections and the changing sentiment.”
The figures and a sustainable recovery of the tourism sector are central to the National Tourism Summit, which takes place online due to corona, with nearly a thousand stakeholders.
– .
