NEW YORK, Dec. 5, 2006 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Incoming tourism to Holland from the United States of America has rebounded to historic levels. In early December, the Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions (NBTC) expects to welcome its 1,000,000th visitor from the USA, marking a banner year for the destination's tourism industry.
"Despite the exchange rate concerns, with the dollar in a renewed slide against the Euro, visitors from the USA are back to the levels of 2000," said Conrad van Tiggelen, Director, NBTC North America. "The number of visitors to Holland since 2004 has been on a steady rise, but it is in 2006 that Holland will once again greet the one millionth visitor. In addition to the success of celebrations surrounding Rembrandt's 400th birthday, various marketing campaigns and the growing number of airline routes from the USA to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol contributed to the growing tourism numbers," he added.
In 2005, 971,000 Americans visited Holland. With regard to inbound tourism, the top three foreign markets for Holland are Germany, the United Kingdom and the USA.
Holland Promotion
In the first eight months of 2006, incoming tourism from the USA marked an increase of 11%. "In our marketing campaigns, NBTC focuses on several target markets," said Van Tiggelen. "For instance, the older, baby-boomer generation has great interest in the traditional, classic Holland product such as our tulips, windmills and historic canal house buildings. For the younger traveler (30 plus) NBTC developed, in cooperation with partners, the CoolCapitals campaign, in which Amsterdam and several other hip and trendy European cities are being marketed as the cool place to be. In Amsterdam on Sale the focus is on shopping. Especially for the student market, NBTC created the StudentStyle campaign, positioning Amsterdam as a 'Must See Student Destination'. These campaigns contributed to the fact that Amsterdam has successfully become a year-round destination for visitors from the USA."
NBTC North America has offices in New York City and representatives in Los Angeles and Toronto, Canada.