The amount of money spent by tourists in the Netherlands last year rose 5% to nearly €73bn, the national statistics office CBS has calculated. It is the second annual rise in a row.

Tourism now accounts for 3.8% of Dutch domestic production, compared with 3% five years ago.

Of the total, some €20bn came from foreign tourists, up 13% on 2014. Visitor numbers rose 8%.

The figures come at a time of mounting criticism of the way tourism is coming to dominate the centre of Amsterdam.

More shops are being turned over to tourist-related subjects and the city council is trying to deal with the surge in private home rentals via websites such as Airbnb.

City officials are quick to point to the importance of tourism to the economy. The new CBS figures show last year nearly 530,000 people were employed in the tourism sector, a rise of 3% year on year. They account for 3.8% of all full time jobs.