The Dutch tourist board is to stop actively promoting the Netherlands as a holiday destination because its main attractions – the canals, tulips and windmills – are becoming both overcrowded, the Telegraaf said on Monday.

In future the NBTC will focus on trying to spread visitors to other parts of the country ‘by putting the spotlight on unknown areas’ and on limiting the problems caused in the busiest periods.

The change of position is part of the organisation’s strategy for the period up to 2030. ‘To control visitor flow and leverage the opportunities that tourism brings with it, we must act now. Instead of destination promotion, it is now time for destination management,’ the NBTC report said.

‘Many other regions should also profit from the expected growth in tourism and we will stimulate new offerings. The NBTC will become much more of a data and expertise centre,’ a spokeswoman told the Telegraaf.

The organisation expects at least 29 million tourists will visit the Netherlands a year by 2030, compared with 19 million in 2018. Last year it developed the HollandCity to try to spread tourists outside the main hotspots of Amsterdam, fishing villages and the bulb fields.

HollandCity strategy which involves promoting the Netherlands as a single metropolis with lots of districts, such as Lake District Friesland and Design District Eindhoven.

Traffic chaos

This Easter, the Keukenholf bulb garden and the Kinderdijk windmill district impossible to reach for a time because so many people had turned out to visit them.

The congestion forced the director of the Keukenhof to discribe the situation as ‘completely unacceptable’ for locals.

Amsterdam too has been grappling with over-tourism and is attempting to spread visitors throughout the city.