Over one million tourists visited The Hague last year, spending 1.8 million nights in the city’s hotels and nearly €400m in shops, cafes and museums, the city’s umbrella group for tourism and the economy said on Wednesday.

Of the overnight visitors, 60% were in the city to visit its attractions, up from 45% in 2015. ‘We are very satisifed with this growth,’ Marco Esser, director of The Hague & Partners, said. ‘We are aiming for high quality visitors who are interested in museums, history and good restaurants, and our strategy has paid off.’

In addition, city officials managed to attract a record 49 new foreign companies to The Hague as well as 12 new NGOs and other organisations.

Economic affairs alderman Richard de Mos said the new firms and the growth in tourism will bring much needed employment.

‘We expect these firms to bring in hundreds of jobs as well, which is very important,’ he said. ‘We have a difficult task ahead with 26,000 people living on social security at the moment.’