Some 19.1 million foreign tourists visited the Netherlands last year, a rise of 7% on 2017, the national tourist board NBTC said on Tuesday.

The rise is almost half that of 2017, the agency, which is responsible for marketing the Netherlands abroad, said. In total, tourists spent €12.7bn on hotels, travel, entertainment and visiting attractions during their stay.

Despite the slowdown in growth, ‘the Netherlands has become even more popular among people in our neighbouring countries,’ board chief Jos Branken said. The 5.8 million German and 2.5 million Belgian tourists – a rise of 10% on 2017 – accounted for over four in 10 of the total number of visitors.

There was an 8% drop in the number of Chinese visitors but a 10% rise in Russian and Indian tourists.