Netherlands looks for 25% growth in Indian travellers

The Netherlands Board Tourism & Convention (NBTC) has witnessed tremendous growth from the Indian market last year and wants to continue the momentum in 2018. Netherlands welcomed 1,65,000 Indians in 2017, with India being the second fastest emerging market along with Brazil, witnessing a 31 per cent increase over 2017.

Realising the potential, Netherlands has set a target to clock 25 per cent growth this year thereby reaching the figure of two lakh Indian arrivals. NBTC has already recorded over 67,000 visitors from India until May 2018.

NBTC has recently organised Holland Sales Mission 2018 in New Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai. NBTC Holland Marketing along with Jet Airways, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and five other players from Netherlands participated and interacted with over 300 travel trade members across the three cities to educate them about the new tourism offerings in Netherlands.

“Around EUR 500,000 is the annual budget allocation for marketing and promotions for the four emerging markets i.e. Russia, India, Brazil and China and any increase in that budget allocation will help us better present ourselves in India which can help attract good numbers. The average length of stay for Indians in Netherlands is four-days,” said Carola Muller – van Rijn, Global Travel Trade Manager, NBTC Holland Marketing.

“The codeshare agreement between Jet Airways and KLM France Royal Dutch Airlines has certainly helped in getting more tourists as direct connectivity was introduced between India and Netherlands but to cover a vast market like India we require more flight connectivity,” she added.