The Dutch government announced that it will officially drop their country's nickname, “Holland,” and only use the name The Netherlands, in an effort to rebrand their “international image.”
The change will mandate that starting in January, “companies, embassies, ministries, and universities will only be able to refer to the state using its legitimate title.”
Technically, Holland specifically refers to two of the 12 provinces found in the Netherlands, North Holland and South Holland.
The decision was made to rebrand the Netherlands’ international reputation and managing an overflow of tourists who go to the country to visit Amsterdam, but no other areas.
A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry previously commented on this rebrand.
He told news agency EFE: ‘It is a little strange to promote only a small part of the Netherlands abroad, that is, only Holland.’ Which makes perfect sense to be honest and makes us wonder why this has only really come about now. It seems the move is an attempt to help manage Dutch tourism.
Last year, the Dutch tourist board said it would stop actively promoting the Netherlands as a tourist destination – this is because many of its cities and attractions are becoming overcrowded.
It is forecasted that in 2020 inbound tourism will continue to grow to 21.2 million tourists.
Most of the individuals who traveled for holiday or business purposes to the Netherlands were from Germany, as roughly 5.24 million German tourists visited their neighboring country.
Together with the Belgians and British, they account for more than half of the total tourists visiting the Netherlands.
