Spending by tourists rose by around 3 percent in 2025

Tourists spent a total of 117.6 billion euros in the Netherlands in 2025. That was 5.6 billion euros more than in 2024. Corrected for price changes, this represents an increase of 3.1 percent. Tourists from other countries accounted for approximately half of this increase. They spent 41.7 billion euros, almost 3.1 billion euros more than they spent in 2024. This corresponds to a real-terms increase of 7.1 percent. Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reports this on the basis of research carried out at the request of the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Spending by tourists refers to total expenditure by tourists before, during and after their trip, and during their stay. Spending by tourists from other countries who do not travel to the Netherlands may also fall into this category, for example if they book a flight or hotel online with a Dutch company.

Spending by Dutch tourists rose by less than 1 percent

Tourists from the Netherlands spent 70.0 billion euros in 2025. Adjusted for price changes, that was 0.8 percent more than in 2024. Tourists from the Netherlands account for over half of all tourist spending.

Other tourist spending rose to 6.0 billion euros in 2025, which was a rise of 3.7 percent over the previous year after adjusting for price changes. Other tourist spending includes spending that cannot be attributed to either domestic or foreign tourists, such as spending on clothing, sports equipment, as well as caravans and pleasure boats.

Tourism grew faster than the economy as a whole in 2025

The value added by the tourism sector to the Dutch economy in 2025 was over 42.3 billion euros. Corrected for price changes, the tourism sector added 3.9 percent more value to the economy than in the previous year. This means that, in real terms, the level of spending is over 5 percent higher than it was at the peak recorded in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic.

Since the end of the coronavirus pandemic, the value added by tourism has been growing faster than that of the economy as a whole. This was also the case prior to the pandemic.

Tourism’s share of the economy remains unchanged

The share of tourism in the Dutch economy remained constant in 2024 at 4.0 percent.

Value added increased across all sectors of tourism. The sharpest increases in 2025 were in the the sectors aviation, travel agencies and travel intermediaries. Art, culture and hobby clubs also saw a rise.

Cautious recovery in tourism-related employment continues

Employment (labour volume) in the tourism sector was slightly higher in 2025 than it was in 2024. Nevertheless, it remains below the 2019 level. The number of labour years worked in the tourism sector rose by 0.6 percent to 458 thousand.

Tourism accounts for 5.4 percent of total employment in the Netherlands. In 2021, at the low point of the coronavirus pandemic, it accounted for 4.6 percent of total employment.

Rise in employment in most sectors of tourism

Employment in the accommodation and food services sector, the largest sector within tourism, fell by 0.4 percent. However, it is rising in other sectors. It is rising the most rapidly in art, culture and hobby clubs.

The number of people employed in the tourism sector rose by 1.3 percent, and the number of jobs by 1.1 percent. Both rose at a faster rate than labour volume. This is partly because there are a relatively large number of part-time jobs in the tourism sector.

Part-time work is relatively common in the tourism sector, which means that the number of jobs is greater than the number of people employed in the sector.