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Background information planned location in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. From "De Telegraaf" the biggest financial newspaper in the Netherlands, dated Wednesday March 3rd 1999

Alarm about chronic shortage of hotel rooms in big cities in the Netherlands

By Mirjam Brinks and Annemiek Paping - AMSTERDAM, Wednesday March 3rd, 1999

A chronic shortage of hotel rooms lets tour operators and seminar holders avoid the big cities in our country (the Netherlands). The Dutch Bureau of Tourism speaks of an alarming situation.

"If we don't get extra hotel rooms, I fear that, for example, big events will pass our country up. The demand for hotel rooms will continue to grow." so says Theo Schmitz, director of the Dutch Bureau of Tourism.

Chances
According to him the Netherlands miss chances for employment if something is not done right away. "We are working with several big cities to solve this problem."

On top of this, Schmitz warns for extreme price increases. "The growing shortage of rooms is the reason hotel prices have risen by 15 to 20% in the last year."

We are dealing with a lack of thousands and thousands of rooms. In the city of Maastricht alone, capacity has increased with 600 hotel rooms, bringing the total to 1800. Part of this addition comes from existing hotels.

But brand new hotels are also built to accommodate the enormous influx of tourists and businessmen. "If we don't take care of expansion, we will miss out," says W. de Jong, director of the tourist office in Maastricht.

Seminars
Seminar centers such as the RAI and the Jaarbeurs are also signaling trouble. Schmitz: "More often space is left unused because they cannot accommodate visitors and participants. Chances are that seminars will seek remedy with competing cities such as Brussels, London or Paris."

In 1997 almost 700 seminars were organized with the lion's share in Amsterdam (175) and in Noordwijk, a city near Amsterdam, (146). There is a growing demand from the seminar world. "The Netherlands rank 6th in the world for seminar location. Although competition from abroad is fierce," says Anne Paret of the Netherlands Seminar bureau.

Last year the number of overnight stays in the Netherlands has grown enormously. From 21,4 million tourists in 1997 to 24,8 million last year, especially Germans are visiting the Netherlands in droves, they spent 10 million times a night in a hotel.

Tourists also spend more money in the Netherlands. In ten years' time revenues from tourism have almost doubled: from NFL 7,3 ($ 3,6) billion in 1989 to NFL 13,4 ($6,7) in 1998.

Here is the original article in Dutch from "De Telegraaf" via Internet, and also see (new) this article!

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