Business management & development
Left and opposite: Kasteel Gemert Eindhoven, Curio Collection by Hilton.
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, 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 collaboration between banks and landlords to forestall the kinds of bankruptcies and fire sales that stalked hospitality elsewhere, leaving owners and operators in a good position to recover. Other strengths of Dutch hospitality can plausibly be seen on a national scale. Consider the country’s location. Less than 165 miles wide, it is crisscrossed by motorways linking Belgium, Germany and France, meaning Dutch hotels are easily accessible by car from dozens of important foreign cities. Public transport is excellent there too – from the world-class Schiphol Airport to trains that arrive on time in over 90% of cases, as reported by RTL Nieuws. Beyond these hard-nosed practicalities, there are
plenty of sentimental reasons to love the country too. Gems of the Dutch Golden Age, Utrecht and Maastricht, offer plenty for admirers of gaunt waterside mansions, while the thrilling modernist towers found in The Hague are ideal for more contemporary sensibilities. It may be one of the most urbanised countries on Earth, but Stephan Stokkermans is equally keen to draw attention to his nation’s rural pleasures. “We market ourselves as the beach of Amsterdam,” explains Stokkermans, the managing director at the Grand Hotel Huis ter Duin, a five-star property overlooking the North Sea. “We try to position ourselves as an alternative for those who don’t necessarily have to be in the centre of those big cities.” And why not? Spend time exploring the Dutch
countryside and its bounties will unfurl themselves like tulips in the spring. Apart from Stokkermans and his hotel in the dunes, the Netherlands is abundant with lakes, forests and swamplands. It helps, too, that the country is simply so small. On a good day, you can drive between most cities in less than an hour,
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making the Netherlands an easy place to uncover even on a short break.
Escape to the country Expected the welcome guests towards the end of this year, Kasteel Gemert Eindhoven promises to offer everything you’d expect in a slick European hotel – except it is developed out of a 14th century castle. Complete with turrets and courtyards, it will provide guests with two restaurants and a bar, a spa and indoor pool. When they tire, visitors will be able to retreat to one of 56 elegantly decorated guestrooms, filled with modern amenities yet sensitively decorated in touch with the building’s past. Yet, despite its impressive history, it’s the choice for this location that is strikingly important. Instead of being in Amsterdam, Kasteel Gemert Eindhoven, part of Hilton’s Curio Collection, is actually in the suburbs of Eindhoven – a city perhaps most famous for being flattened by the Luftwaffe, is now a major industrial centre. And the Hilton is not unique in its decision to look beyond the capital. With large swathes of Amsterdam off limits to new hotels and locals increasingly exhausted by foreigners, investors are setting their eyes on other places instead. Certainly, this is clear from the numbers.
According to work by THP, there are over 40 new hotels slated to open between 2021–24 in the Netherlands, spread across towns as distinct as Breda and Rotterdam. That’s shadowed by moves across particular brands. In 2022, for example, Marriott opened open two properties in The Hague. Not to be outdone, IHG will unveiled a new Kimpton in the heart of Rotterdam last year.
As this torrent of international branding implies, Dompeling argues the shift is more than purely geographical. Rather, he suggests it’s visitor demographics that are changing too, with curious tourists starting to venture further from the Rijksmuseum and Vondelpark for their holidays. “There have been hotels outside of the bigger cities that have been taking advantage of that strong domestic and German demand,” he says, “and [they] have actually reported pretty good numbers”. Dompeling’s reference to German tourists is far from incidental. Boasting higher disposable incomes
The forecasted growth in hospitality market share in the Netherlands by 2026. Technavio
$5.3bn 9
Kasteel Gemert Eindhoven
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