Tourism significant sector of industry

Dutch tourists spent nearly 36 billion euro in the Netherlands in 2002, and foreign tourists another 6 billion. Tourism thus generated 12.8 billion euro in value added in 2002and contributed 3.1 percent to the Dutch national economy according to new figures from Statistics Netherlands.

Tourist spending, 2002

12.4 cent of every euro is spent on recreation

Spending on tourism amounted to 41.8 billion euro in 2002. Dutch households spent 29 billion euro on recreational tourism and 6.7 billion euro on business travel. Recreational spending thus accounted for 12.4 percent of total consumer spending by Dutch households. Foreign visitors spent 6.1 billion euro in the Netherlands, by far most on recreational tourism (5.1 billion euro).
Of the total 29 billion euro spent on recreation, Dutch households spent 14.6 billion euro in the Netherlands and 10.0 billion euro on foreign trips. One quarter of the latter amount is paid to Dutch companies such as airlines, travel agents and tour operators.
Lastly, they spent 2.7 billion euro on durable recreational goods such as caravans and camping equipment, and 1.7 billion on social transfers. 

Value added by sector of industry, 2002

Tourism bigger than agriculture

With a share of 3.1 percent in total value added, tourism has become more significant than agriculture (2.3 percent) and mineral extraction (2.4 percent) for the Dutch economy. However, it is still modest compared with the share of financial and business services (26.6 percent) or manufacturing (14.3 percent).

Value added per sector of tourism, 2002

Restaurants, cafés and pubs

The largest part of value added from tourism is generated in the typical tourist spending sectors: restaurants, cafés and pubs, transport companies, cultural, sports and recreation institutions (museums, theatres, amusement parks), accommodation (hotels, camp sites) and travel agents.

Rutger Hoekstra, Albert Pieters and Eefje Lammers