Tourists and business travellers spent €17bn last year

Foreign visitors spent more than €17 billion on trips to the Netherlands in 2019, with business travel accounting for one-third of the total.

European travellers were responsible for the bulk of the income from tourism, accounting for 88% of the total, according to new figures from the statistics agency CBS. Figures for 2020 are likely to be much lower because of the impact of coronavirus.

Germans spent more than two-fifths (42.9%) of the total amount, far more than any other nation. Belgian visitors contributed 12% and British tourists spent 8.6% of the total. The only non-Europeans in the top 10 were Americans (4.6%) and Chinese (1.1%).

Foreign travel is one of the five largest sources of cross-border revenue, accounting for 7.4% of exports and 9.2% of imports.

Since 2014 the amount spent by foreign visitors has gone up by 56%, according to the CBS. Americans and Britons both spent 14% more collectively than they did in 2018.

Dutch travellers spent a total of €20 billion in other countries, with Germany taking a 19.1% share. Other popular destinations were Spain (8.8%), Belgium (8.2%), France (8%) and the United States (5.9%).