The Zandvoort tourist board has big plans to encourage more visitors to the resort, which has been dubbed Amsterdam beach in marketing speak, the Parool reported at the weekend.

The seaside town is planning to hold a festival focusing on ‘Great Britain’ next summer to boost the quality of its tourist offerings

If Zandvoort city council and Zandvoort Marketing have anything to do with it, Zandvoort will not stop at adopting the name of the capital but import some of its sophistication as well, the paper writes.

Zandvoort currently boasts over five million visitors a year who together spend some €180m. However, other coastal resorts are upping their game as well and research has shown that visitor appreciation for the accommodation on offer in Zandvoort is slipping.

According to Lana Lemmons, director of the local VVV tourist bureau,  Zandvoort needs to become a resort with a cosmopolitan feel where trends are swiftly adopted, or in marketing terms ‘when it’s hot, it’s here’.

‘We have identified four important elements: the beach, the racing circuit, the village and the dunes. It is our ambition to involve at least two of these elements in every activity we organise,’ Lemmons told the paper.

Hunting lunch

One of the ways to unlock Zandvoort’s attractions to a wider audience is this summer’s festival which will be focused on Great Britain. ‘That means people will have to coordinate what they are doing, for instance, it’s not a good idea for everyone to sell fish and chips,’ Lemmons explained to het Parool.

Other suggestions to put Zandvoort on the map include bringing back Jackie Stewart to the racing circuit, painting the Beatles’ Abbey Road zebra crossing in front of the town hall, and organising a traditional hunting lunch in the nearby dunes.

Peter van Delft of Zandvoort Marketing is convinced Zandvoort can make the transition to high-end destination. ‘Being presented as Amsterdam’s beach means we need to live up to expectations. A lot of entrepreneurs have exchanged Amsterdam for Zandvoort in the last few years and they are doing well. We have professional chefs with a good choice of menu.

‘Now the rest of the businesses needs to join this drive, each in their own way. Visitors have to have a good reason to come here and to keep coming here,’ he told the paper.