Amsterdam – known for its historic canals, the famous Van Gogh Museum, the Rijksmuseum, and the coffee shops of the Red Light District – is also a significant financial and business centre in Europe.

With a population of more than 930,000 , the capital city of Amsterdam lies on the coast of the province of North Holland.

There were more than 3,500 international companies in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area (AMA) in 2023, representing more than 30% of the private-sector jobs. The city is highly accessible via local, national and international transport links.

Amsterdam has excellent domestic and international connections via Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, the European high-speed rail network and the North Sea Canal.

Source: HVS Research

Economic Indicators – The Netherlands

Source: IMF

Tourism Demand

Amsterdam has historically been one of the main tourism destinations in Europe. Between 2010 and 2023, the city’s visitation grew by 4% each year, on average, with more than 75% of the visitors being international.

In 2023, the primary international feeder markets remained identical to the pre-pandemic years, with the UK (13%), the USA (11%), Germany (10 %) and France (5%) being responsible for nearly 40% of inbound traffic.

The domestic market accounted for 21% of total visitation, reaching 117% of the pre-pandemic levels of 2019. After a severe drop in visitation in 2020 owing to the pandemic, visitation picked up slightly in 2021 but truly started to recover in 2022, following the lift of the travel restrictions in March.

Having reported an increase in issues linked to overtourism in recent years, Amsterdam raised the city tax to 12.5% in January 2024, aiming to reduce the number of cruise ship arrivals and change the profile of visitors coming to the city.

This strategy is becoming increasingly popular in European cities facing the same problem, such as Barcelona and Venice.

Visitation and Accommodated Bednights

Source: Centraal Bureau voor der Statistiek

Hotel Performance

In 2018 and 2019, the Amsterdam market saw healthy growth in both occupancy and average rate, achieving record RevPAR levels, before plummeting by approximately 80% during COVID.

Despite a slow start to 2022, the market experienced a rapid recovery following the lifting of restrictions in March. Owing to a drastic increase in occupancy (+40 percentage points) and an equally impressive growth in average rate (+55%), the market’s RevPAR quadrupled year-on-year.

Maintaining this momentum in 2023, RevPAR increased by 35%. Despite reaching pre-pandemic levels in nominal values for the first time, last year’s RevPAR was still a couple of percentage points behind 2019 in real terms. We highlight that our data sample leans more strongly towards the upper end of the market, as reflected in the higher-than-average room rates.

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