NL pulls in 14 million tourists, Amsterdam popular

18 May 2015 Consultancy.uk

In 2014 nearly 14 million tourists visited the Netherlands – up nearly 9% on the year before and up 40% on the 10 million that visited in 2005. The majority of tourists (80%) came from Europe, with Germany, the UK and Belgium being in highest representation. Capital city Amsterdam is by a distance the most popular destination for tourists visiting the country.

The Netherlands is attracting more and more tourists reveals an analysis from the research team of Consultancy.uk, based on figures released by NBTC Holland Marketing – a foundation responsible for the branding and marketing of the Netherlands as an attractive destination for travellers and tourists. Compared to 2000, and 2005, the Netherlands last year attracted 4 million more visitors – an increase of 40% to a total of nearly 14 million.

Number of tourists in the Netherlands

Number of tourists in the Netherlands
By far the most tourists come from Europe – in 2014 around 11.3 million, 80% of the total. Compared to 2000 the number of European tourists has grown by 41%. The European share of people visiting the country over the past 15 years has also been relatively stable at 80%.

Growth in number of tourists

Growth in the number of tourists
More tourists flying out of Asia are visiting the Netherlands – with 981,000 in 2014, which is 65% more than in 2000. After Europe the next largest origin of tourists were from North and South America. Around 1.4 million, for the largest part from the US, visited the Netherlands.

Europe
For visitors coming to the Netherlands from Europe the most come from Germany – at nearly 4 million and 36% of the European total. This is followed by tourists from the UK (1.9 million), yet with almost stagnant regional growth of 1% since 2000. Closely behind the UK comes Belgium, with 1.8 million visitors – and with a staggering growth figure of 172% of that of 2000. The largest increase in terms of growth of visitors stemmed from Russia, growing 184% from 69,000 in 2005 to 196,000 in 2014.

Number of European tourists in the Netherlands

Destination
Around 45% of the tourists (6.3 million) visited the four big cities in the Netherlands: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht. Amsterdam is by far the most popular destination for tourists – with 5.2 million tourists visiting the Dutch capital; up 56% on 2000.

Number of tourists per city

Other figures
The data from NBTC Holland Marketing discloses more than only tourist numbers. It also includes data on the total spending of tourists (€10.2 billion), spending of tourists per day (averaging €214) and the nationality that spends the most (Japanese tourists spend an average €460 per day), but also non-financial data – like the length of stay, with the majority staying between 1 and 3 nights (55%) while 11% stay a week or longer in the country.