The whole of the Netherlands is expected to receive about 70 percent fewer International visitors this year
Translated by Thomas Ansell
As reported by the Omrop Fryslân, the Netherlands was only expecting to welcome around 7 million tourists this year, and with new Coronavirus regulations announced yesterday by PM Mark Rutte even this may not be possible. Martin Cnossen, the head of Merk Fryslân, is holding his breath and hoping that Dutch tourists will make up the numbers.
“Friesland is a bit less reliant on overseas tourists”, says Cnossen, “for example Amsterdam relies significantly more on them. So, we think that we can perhaps be a bit more positive about these figures.”
According to Cnossen, Friesland managed to bring in more tourists earlier this year than expected: “the summer was better than we had hoped. Thanks to Dutch people taking 30 per cent fewer overseas trips, we didn’t suffer too much. We saw clearly that Friesland was a popular destination, as everything here feels a bit safer.”
The new regulations set by the Dutch cabinet around the Coronavirus may also hit the tourism industry, “they are likely to be some drama for the sector”, says Cnossen, “we still have a lot to do. I hope that the new regulations are really only for three weeks.”
“If these new regulations continue throughout the Autumn school holidays, then that’s really difficult”, surmises Cnossen. “We’re holding our breath a little bit.”
Image: one of the LF2018 fountains, by Jaume Plensa. Image by Wikimedia user Bouwe Brouwer. License here.
