The tourism and recreation sector will present the National Tourism transition plan to the House of Representatives on Tuesday. The industry argues in it for the establishment of a transformation fund of one billion euros to promote and renew tourism in the country, the AD writes.

According to the authors of the plan, fifteen large marketing organizations, the money is needed to make holiday parks and tourist attractions more sustainable, to give accommodation a refurbishment and to make transport for visitors CO2 neutral. “The Netherlands still presents itself too much as a country of cheese, tulips and clogs, but do we still want to be?” Herre Dijkema wonders in the newspaper. He is director of Tourism Veluwe Arnhem Nijmegen and initiator of the plan. “I am not saying that the image of cheese, tulips and clogs is wrong, but we have to start thinking about how we want to position our country, how we keep it liveable for residents, how we can make it more sustainable and how we can combat overtourism.”

He tells the AD that many companies do not want to go back to the pre-corona situation in which mass tourism predominated. “As a sector, we need to do much more with sustainability and the prevention of mass tourism. That goes beyond regional politics. That requires a national vision for the future and a coordinating role from the political perspective of The Hague.”

Dijkema emphasizes that many companies want to make the switch, but are hindered by the financial consequences of the corona crisis. “Many companies want to move forward and invest in the future, but the stretch is gone, the reserves are exhausted.”

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