Spending by tourists in the Netherlands has not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels, figures from national statistics agency CBS have shown.

National and foreign tourists spent some €36.5 billion more in 2022 than the year before, when restriction still applied to international travel, bringing the total to almost €96 billion.

Overall tourism accounted for 3.7% of the Netherlands’ GDP last year, up from 2.5% the year before but still below the 4.4% recorded in 2018 and 2019.

“The economy as a whole is largely back where it was in 2019, except for tourism. People spent a spectacular amount more last year but it’s still less than before the pandemic, ” CBS economist Peter Hein van Mulligen told broadcaster NOS.

Just a third of the extra revenue came from foreign tourists. Chinese visitors, for instance, booked a total of 308,000 nights at Dutch hotels in 2019. By 2022 this had plunged to 62,000, the CBS found.