The Hindu Business Line : `Holland in miniature' draws Indians in droves

At long last, Indians are making their way to the Netherlands to savour its places of tourist interest. The best evidence of this is the increasing numbers that are visiting the `Holland in miniature' complex called Madurodam in The Hague, located near the Scheveningen beach on the North Sea.

Figures complied by the tourist complex indicate that the number of visitors is rising steeply.

Thus, in 2004, as many as 19,000 Indian tourists visited the miniature city, their number rising to 21,000 in 2005. In the current year, till now, as many as 25,000 Indian tourists have already visited the complex, which, to at least one petite guide, was a revelation.

Madurodam is a highly attractive tourist complex, which must be an essential stop for any tourist visiting the Netherlands — in particular The Hague, which is the Dutch political capital and the seat of the royal house of the Netherlands.

Set up for charity purposes in 1952 by, among others, the parents of George Maduro, who died in a German concentration camp in the World War II, the complex presents a miniaturised Holland on a scale of 1:25, providing virtually real snapshots of important places in the country, including the architectural riches of cities and towns such as Delft, Utrecht, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Leiden and The Hague itself.

The representation is so lifelike that one can see a moving procession leaving a cathedral, traffic moving along the streets, working windmills, a functioning Rotterdam port, and an operating model of Schiphol airport, which includes moving aircraft (all constructed to scale).

Of passing interest is the fact that among the airlines, which figure in this drama (the planes are actually seen moving around the airport) are KLM, the Dutch national carrier, Thai, Northwest - and PIA of Pakistan. The guide said that the airlines featured are part-sponsors of the airport model.

The rising number of Indian visitors to Madurodam could be part of a long-term trend of Indian tourism interest in the Netherlands as a whole, which is one reason why Dutch tourism authorities are focusing on the Indian market.

As the Director of the Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions, Michiel van Diggele, told visiting Indian correspondents recently, a marketing agency has just been appointed "to promote Holland at a PR level" vis-à-vis the "tourism press" (about 900 travel writers visit Holland every year from all over the world).

There is as yet no advertising budget because of limited resources, but it is clear that with time the Dutch are going to do their best to corner as many tourists as possible from the sub-continent, which promises to be a difficult job given the tough competition from places such as France, Switzerland and Austria.

Till now, the generation of tourist revenue has not been a major industry for the Dutch authorities.

As van Diggele pointed out, as of now around 10 million foreign tourists visit Holland every year, of which nearly 27 per cent come from Germany alone.

In fact, Germany, Britain, Belgium and the US together account for nearly 60 per cent of the foreign visitors.

As far as the Asian market is concerned, the largest number of arrivals is from Japan, followed by China.

An interesting observation made by van Diggele concerned the "increasing maturity" of the Japanese market, which was shifting from the "group psychology" of the elderly (which will remain there "forever", as van Diggele put it) to one of individual interest dominated mainly by English-speaking young Japanese.

The Chinese and Indian markets are promising, but there are still visa problems associated with travel for tourism purposes, especially as far as India is concerned.

While, in China, the domestic authorities have a large say in selecting the tourists, in India intending travellers have to present themselves in person at the Dutch embassy and consulates to get their visas — "for good reasons", as van Diggele pointed out.

However, the tourism board director held out the hope that some positive developments with regard to the grant of Indian tourist visas were in the offing and if that happened, the Indian tourist flow to the Netherlands would definitely get a shot in the arm.