Inbound tourists from Asia to the Netherlands 2019-2021

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic disrupted the tourism industry, as governments implemented travel restrictions to face the global health crisis. In the Netherlands, due to the pandemic, the number of inbound tourists from Asia decreased sharply in 2020 over the previous year, declining from almost 1.5 million to just 245 thousand. As a result of the pandemic, it was estimated that the Netherlands only reported about 13 thousand hotels guests from Asia in the second quarter of 2020. Looking at the forecasts for 2021, a January 2021 study analyzed different scenarios. In the best-case scenario, assuming that intra-continental traveling will be possible from July on, Asian inbound tourists were forecast to reach 135 thousand in 2021. In the worst-case scenario, with restrictions taking place until the end of 2021, the number of inbound tourists from Asia to the Netherlands was estimated to decrease to around 55 thousand in 2021.

Overnight guests from China and Japan

In 2018, most of the Japanese tourists that spent their time in the Netherlands did so in Amsterdam. In that year, roughly 55 thousand overnight guests from Japan were registered in the capital city, whereas Rotterdam counted around nine thousand Japanese overnight guests. The same development can be seen with the number of overnight guests from China. In 2019, 185 thousand Chinese guests stayed in Amsterdam, while 20 thousand and nine thousand guests had their overnight stay in Rotterdam and The Hague, respectively.

Total number of hotel guests in Amsterdam

Looking at the overall number of hotel guests from Asian countries in Amsterdam (Netherlands) in 2018, a total of 680 thousand guests spent their stay in hotels in the city famous for its canals. Roughly 27 thousand of these hotel guests came from Indonesia, whereas 75 thousand from India.