Research by hotel real estate consultancy Horwath HTL and ABN Amro shows that the Dutch hotel industry is recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic but experts are still worried about future prospects.

Lockdowns and travel restrictions in 2020 took the Dutch hotel industry from historic highs to historic lows in 2020. The hotel occupancy rate ran at 78% in 2019 but fell to 34% in 2020.

That number crept up to 39% in 2021 and experts say it will likely hit 62% by the end of 2022. ‘After the lifting of the last restrictive measures in March 2022, a strong recovery is visible,’ the report said. The research is based on survey data from 400 hotels in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

The cost of hotel rooms also increased. The average room rate moved from €87 in 2020 to €88 in 2021, but that is still 17% lower than the 2019 price of €120. The report estimated the final average price will be €125 by the end of the year.

Dutch bank ABN Amro predictes Amsterdam will see 18 million overnight visitors by the end of the year. That number is significant as the city council sees it as the maximum number of visitors the capital wants in a year.

Mayor Femke Halsema has drawn up a list of ideas for reducing the number of tourists, including hiking tourist taxes, charging low cost airlines more and enticing tourists to neighbourhoods away from the city center.

The bank warned that a tourist tax may simply push tourists to other cities for the evening, who will then come into Amsterdam during the day.

The number of available hotel rooms in surrounding cities have increased by 40% according to the report. ‘Party visitors go back in the middle of the night and spend the night elsewhere. Thirty to 45 minutes by taxi or train will not deter them,’ the report noted.