Regional focus Want to go Dutch?
From Rotterdam to Breda, tourists are discovering there’s more to the Netherlands beyond its capital city – an opportunity that hoteliers are capitalising on. But with Amsterdam struggling with its infl ux of visitors, how can this small, tightly packed country hope to develop sustainably? Andrea Valentino talks to Jurrian Dompeling, senior vice-president at JLL, and Stephan Stokkermans, the managing director at the Grand Hotel Huis ter Duin, to learn more.
ownhouses. Canals. Vermeers. For over a century, what we think of as Dutch tourism has seared itself into the mind as vividly as Italian piazzas or English country lanes. As long ago as 1901, local hoteliers gathered to sing the delights of Amsterdam, and a few decades later they were explicitly marketing the town as a centre for art and culture. Even in 1940, with Europe aflame and German tanks grumbling nearby, one optimistic Dutch official declared: “There are still many tourists that are ‘crazy’ for historical places and buildings.” Wartime enthusiasm aside, this excitement isn’t difficult to appreciate. Today the city has an estimated 7,000 officially recognised historical buildings – and almost 40,000 hotel rooms according to Statista – making the erstwhile home of Rembrandt and Anne Frank a jewel. Yet, as Amsterdam remains as frantic with tourists as ever, welcoming 8.8 million visitors in 2019, not everyone is happy with the influx. In December 2022, the city launched a campaign to ‘stay away’ from drugs and sex, and local authorities have implemented legislation making it far harder to build new hotels along the city’s infamous waterways. To an extent, these worries are understandable. Alongside its more wholesome architectural and cultural reputation, Amsterdam is equally famous for
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cannabis and prostitution. And as the country’s largest city – in one of the most densely populated nations in Europe – social problems are bound to follow. With Amsterdam seemingly happy to relinquish its crown as a tourist’s top choice, this leaves space for other parts of the kingdom to shine. They may not be as fashionable (yet) but cities like Haarlem and Rotterdam, to name a few, are exploiting their robust infrastructure and convenient locations to appeal to suitors from across hospitality.
Pandemic recovery
All things considered, Dutch hospitality had a pretty good pandemic. Of course, the country suffered like the rest: only seven million people visited in 2020, a significant fall from 20 million foreign tourists in the year before, according to figures from Statista. Yet, in Q3 2022, CBS reports the country welcomed 5.4 million tourists from abroad, double the number of guests for the same period in 2021. Technavio forecasts the hospitality market share in the Netherlands will grow by $5.3bn by 2026.
As Jurrian Dompeling explains, a large part of this resurgence can be chalked down to the resilience of the Dutch themselves. The senior vice-president at JLL notes that throughout the pandemic there was careful
Hotel Management International /
www.hmi-online.com
Hotel Management International /
www.hmi-online.com
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Grand Hotel Huis ter Duin
Grand Hotel Huis ter Duin
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