Reports
Brabant, Noord-Holland, Overijssel, Utrecht, Zeeland and Zuid-Holland
The country on the whole receives around 10 million foreign visitors each year primarily from Germany, the UK, the USA and Belgium whilst foreign visitors spend around €8bn a year in the country.
The country is well known for its liberal policies towards drugs, prostitution, homosexuality and euthanasia whilst the rich culture and history draws other tourists to its 1,000 or so museums and unique landscape of tulips and 1,000 plus windmills, harbours and canals.
The Dutch coastline attracts recreational visitors and with round 15,000 kilometres of cycling tracks running throughout the country it is often the preferred form of transport for even the Dutch themselves with some 16 million bicycles in the country. In the retail sector over 90 per cent of the Dutch shopping market is controlled by the top four supermarket groups.
Ahold (Albert Heijn shops) has 41 per cent of the market followed by Laurus (Edah, Konmar, Super de Boer) with 26 per cent and Trade Service Netherlands (A&P). C1000 and other independents have 15 per cent whilst Superunie (SPAR) and others have less than 10 per cent.
Albert Heijn is probably the country’s best known brand and today has more than 750 stores across four formats. Established back in 1887 Albert Heijn pioneered the development of the modern supermarket in the Netherlands.
Meanwhile the retail sector remains heavily dominated by Dutch retail organisations and there are around 225,000 retail outlets. In the early part of the 21st century there were around 12,600 men’s and women’s clothes shops and approximately 7,500 retail companies of which 62 per cent were small companies and 15 per cent large businesses.
largest economy in the world.
Around two thirds of the population is located within the Randstad - the area connecting the four cities of Amsterdam, Den Haag, Utrecht and Rotterdam.
The Netherlands has a prosperous and open economy depending heavily on foreign trade with a GDP growth rate in 2008 that grew by two per cent whilst it is expected to drop by 3.2 per cent this year with the world recession.
It is estimated that eachDutchman
spends around€125
per year on gambling – a total of around €1.75bn. Butwith a casinomonopoly
situation in place the freedoms of operators are restricted and
market expansion is often kept to a minimum.
Unemployment stands at around 4.5 per cent and around 17 per cent of the working age are on benefits whilst there is a high number of part time employees (particularly women) meaning labour shortages often need addressing.
The governing coalition, composed of the CDA, Labour Party and the small Christian Union, is expected to remain in power until the next elections in 2011. The country is divided into 12 provinces including, Drenthe, Flevoland, Friesland, Gelderland, Groningen, Limburg, Noord-
The majority of these retail outlets are located in shopping malls whilst the first Factory Outlets didn’t start to open in the Netherlands until 2000 with the Lelystad Centre. Major retail chain stores include Royal Ahold, Inter IKEA Systems, C&A Nederland and AS Watson.
As the Dutch however are the most active internet users in the world it also seems that the growth of retailing online is growing rapidly.
Netherlands has a well developed shopping centre market and currently has
NETHERLANDS
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