Out of corona dip
By RTL Z 7 minutes ago Modified: 7 minutes ago
© Bert SpiertzRTL
Tourism in the Netherlands is booming again after the lean corona years. Last year, domestic and foreign tourists in our country spent almost 105 billion euros.
That is a huge increase compared to a year earlier, when just over 92 billion euros were spent. If you correct for the increased price level in the Netherlands (everything has become more expensive), there is still a growth of almost 13 billion euros. This is evident from new figures from Statistics Netherlands (CBS).
More than two hours of recreation
Tourism is more than just hotel stays and camping visits. Every excursion of more than two hours ‘from a recreational tourist or business tourist motive outside the normal environment’ is tourism according to the CBS.
Of the 105 billion euros, about a third (34.5 billion) comes from foreign tourists. Adjusted for inflation, that is a growth in expenditure of more than 15 percent. The vast majority (more than 65 billion euros) comes from the Dutch themselves.
The good calculator will see that there is still about 5.3 billion euros left: that is spent on durable goods. Think for example of buying clothes during a day of shopping in an outlet centre.
3.8 percent of the economy
And the Dutch economy actually benefits from all that tourism. You can best see that in the added value. That is the difference between turnover and purchasing costs. That added value amounted to 36.7 billion euros last year. That is almost as much as before the corona pandemic and all the restrictions that came with it.
Last year, the tourism industry accounted for 3.8 percent of the entire economy. In the corona disaster year 2020, this was only 2.3 percent.