The Netherlands is facing huge budget cuts. The promotion of tourism is also affected. But this is not a good idea, because less money means fewer foreign tourists and a lower income from the tourist sector, says the Dutch tourist board (NBTC). Or should the tourist board just learn to live with less?

Every year, the treasury forks out 16.6 million euros to put the Netherlands literally on the tourist map. By 2015, this figure will only be about 5.8 million. NBTC head Jos Vranken thinks the plans are not in the country’s economic interests. “This means we can do less to improve the visibility and positioning of the Netherlands as a tourist destination. Which will eventually have a negative effect on the number of visitors and the amount of money they spend.”

Chain
“As a result the tourist sector will miss out on two million tourists, losing 800 million euros,” says Mr Vranken. He thinks the government cuts go too deep.

“Based on tourism figures we can work out how much every public-privately invested euro yields. The answer is that for every euro invested we get around forty euros back.”

Research shows that every euro the government puts into the tourism sector has good returns. All the money that tourists spend in the Netherlands ends up in the Dutch economy, says Mr Vranken.

“This has been known for years. Unlike other sectors, the tourism sector is still growing. In spite of the recession, people still seem to be going on holiday. This creates a lot of jobs, not just in tourism, but also in the chain of businesses around it, such as the food and drink industry and the transport sector.”

Couch surfing
Frank Go, Professor of Tourism and Management at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, thinks it’s good to reinforce the Dutch competitiveness. But as a result of budget cuts, the nature and size of government subsidies are under discussion. The promotion of the Holland brand is partly financed by the government.

From the point of view of returns, it is not sensible to put less money into promotion, thinks Mr Go. But cuts are being made in all sectors and the government is pulling back. So the sector will have to learn to do without.

That’s why new ideas are needed to beat international competition. Mr Go thinks the sector will have to become more creative, use its know-how better, work together more effectively and reinforce one another.

“In this sector, people tend to work from many different isolated kingdoms. Coalitions of sport and tourism and festivals and tourism have to become more visible and recognisable for instance. How can the different groups cooperate to bring down costs?”

The sector should also become aware of new trends. Young people in particular take a different kind of holiday than they used to. For instance nowadays, young tourists go couch surfing (sleeping at other people’s houses) rather than stay in a hotel. The economic rules of the game have radically changed and Mr Go wonders whether the tourist sector is ready to adapt.

Purse
The tourism and congress sectors currently spend 44 percent of their budget on promoting the Netherlands abroad. Mr Vranken thinks this is as far as it can go. In the future the tourism sector will only be able to do what is absolutely necessary.

Social media and mobile applications are becoming more and more important to tourists looking for a hotel to book. But the tourist board says that for now it wants to direct most of its efforts towards business promotion.

(nc/rk)