Record number of hotel bednights in Amsterdam in 2013

In 2013, Amsterdam registered a record number of hotel bednights. Dutch bednights grew by 18.6 % while foreign bednights increased by 4.1 %. In total, Amsterdam hotels saw bednights rise by 6.6% compared with 2012. Together with Hamburg Berlin and Lisbon, Amsterdam belongs to the top of the fastest growing European cities in terms of bednights. As regards to hotel room occupancy, Amsterdam ranks second highest in Europe behind Londen with 78.2%*. Visitors lodging by friends and family or who arranged accommodation via Airbnb are not taken into account in these figures, just like cruiseship passengers.

Besides the fact that there are significantly more Dutch bednights registered in Amsterdam (a total of 2,159,000), bednights generated by other markets also increased such as Belgium (+17.2 %), Germany (+17.9%), Great Britain (+8.6%) and France (+8.6%). American bednights show a decrease of 4.1 %. Due to the economic crisis in Spain, the number of bednights generated by Spaniards in Amsterdam dropped by 14.4%.

For the first time in several years bednights from the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) display different trends. Whereas bednights from Russia (+20.0%), China (+9.8%) and to a lesser extent Brazil (+3,8%) display significant growth rates in 2013, the bednights from India showed a decrease of 11.7%.

If we consider the distribution of bednights between the leisure and business segment we can clearly see that both increased in 2013, the business segment slightly more (+7.0%) than the leisure segment (+6.3%). We can also see the leisure segment plays a leading role during the first and last quarter. During the third quarter, this is more the case for the business segment, with a significant increase in bednights of 17.8%. This is partly due to the major conferences organized in the city during this quarter.

In total, Amsterdam registered a record with 11,262,000 hotel bednights during 2013. 2,159,000 of which were generated by Dutch visitors.

The media attention of which the museums benefited, particularly in the first half of 2013, led to a significant increase in the number of visits to the Amsterdam museums in 2013 (+16.3% ). The attractions display a slight decline in the second quarter, but on the whole register a slight growth in 2013 (+4.1%).

After a slow start in the first quarter the airport traffic also exhibits a slight increase in the number of incoming international passengers in 2013, which compensates for the initial losses (+1.4%).

The figures above are based on further provisional CBS figures.
*Source: "The European Destination's Observatory", ECM - MKG Hospitality