RIJSWIJK, 09/01/07 - The number of foreign tourists visiting the Netherlands rose by 9 percent last year. The number of Dutch vacationers abroad conversely fell slightly.

Some 10.9 million foreign tourists visited the Netherlands last year, a record. Announcing the preliminary figures yesterday, the Netherlands Bureau for Tourism and Congresses (NBTC) attributed the "historically rapid growth" of 9 percent from 2005 to advertising campaigns for city trips such as the City Break Campaign and CoolCapitals and worldwide economic growth. For 2007, NBTC expects modest further growth of foreign tourist numbers.

The number of Dutch people vacationing abroad declined somewhat in 2006, tourists organisation ANWB reported yesterday. The number of domestic holidays taken by the Dutch did go up slightly, among other reasons due to the good early summer. ANWB is predicting that the total number of holidays taken by the Dutch in 2007 will increase by about 2 percent to some 35 million.

Foreign city trips are popular with the Dutch. Favourite destinations are Barcelona, Rome and Paris. Interest in long-haul destinations is also continuing to grow, said ANWB. Thailand and the Caribbean are popular, and more people are also going to Surinam, partly because more airlines have for some time had Paramaribo as destination.