This case study explores the National Data Alliance in the Netherlands. By working together in gathering relevant data and deciding on standardisation in research methods and definitions, the alliance helps facilitate comparable data. By combining regional and national government budgets, the alliance can help set up large scale monitors on inbound and domestic tourism and day visits. Due to these benefits, organisations and governments see the value in collaborating within the tourism data space.
The National Data Alliance in the Netherlands
Abstract
The Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions (NBTC) supports data driven decision making through the National Data Alliance. National and regional governments, destination management organisations, city marketing organisations, knowledge institutes (higher education), Statistics Netherlands, and NBTC collaborate to gather and share data, to develop standards and definitions, and on research innovation. The National Data Strategy was developed by the partners in the data alliance, and offers guiding principles and strategic priorities for the coming years.
In 2019, NBTC presented a new vision on tourism in the Netherlands: Perspective 2030, which was adopted by the national government. In this vision, tourism is not seen as a goal in itself, but as a “contributing factor to the solution of consequential social issues and challenges that impact our prosperity and welfare, in order that every Dutch citizen will benefit from tourism by 2030.” The vision contained five strategic priorities, including the geographic and seasonal dispersal of visitors, and improving the accessibility and sustainable of destinations. The vision included three criteria for success, one of which was the development of a National Data Alliance.
NBTC brought together different stakeholders from the tourism sector to discuss the scope of the alliance and the topics to address. These meetings provided frameworks for the alliance's work programme. Through funding from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate, a Programme Office was created that developed the work programme, a corporate identity and a website for the National Data Alliance.
By working together in gathering relevant data and deciding on standardisation in research methods and definitions, the alliance helps facilitate comparable data. By combining regional and national government budgets, the alliance can help set up large scale monitors on inbound and domestic tourism and day visits. Due to these benefits, organisations and governments see the value in collaborating within the tourism data space.
The governance of the alliance is organised through a Programme Council in which several organisations are represented, including the Ministry of Economic Affairs, NBTC, Statistics Netherlands, regional governments (Dutch provinces), destination and city management organisations, their branch organisation Destination Netherlands, as well as higher education. In the co-operation, data suppliers and data users meet and determine together what is needed to facilitate and stimulate data-driven work in the tourism sector.
The alliance began with a general budget of EUR 80 000 to cover the costs of de Programme Office and an additional EUR 70 000 in total from the different stakeholders to spend on knowledge sharing activities (meetings, publications, website etc.) and projects on standardisation. Trough an additional grant from the national government of EUR 500 000, several innovative data projects could be financed (on big data, data hubs etc.) during the first four years of the alliance. In this period, large-scale national monitors were also developed from additional funding from national and regional governments.
Despite the budget, there was no structural funding, other than the funding of the Programme Office. This meant that significant time was invested in fundraising activities, and resulted in uncertainty regarding the continuation of the national monitors.
Following three years of collaboration, the data alliance drafted a National Data Strategy as a framework to guide the work going forward, which includes a mission, vision, guiding principles and strategic focus.
As of 2024, the alliance established multi-year funding agreements with the different stakeholders involved to make sure the research monitors on inbound tourism, domestic tourism and day visits are updated on an ongoing basis. It is estimated that approximately EUR 1.5 million over four years is needed, of which nearly 1 million is funded by other parties, such as the twelve provinces of the Netherlands.
The aim of the data alliance is to develop more structural and granular data on tourism and recreation in the Netherlands, ideally as part of a regular statistical data collection. The data alliance focuses on basic data on inbound and domestic tourism, supply as well as demand data (see Box 1 for an overview of the 2024 data projects); and knowledge sharing, standardisation and innovation.
On the topic of basic insights, the data alliance set up several national monitors using online panels of market research companies, for example on inbound day visits and inbound tourism with questions on the panellists’ last visit to the Netherlands (where they went, what they did, how much they spent, and so on). The alliance also developed a dataset of tourism accommodation supply in the Netherlands.
NBTC’s monitors on inbound tourism and day visits result in a large dataset that is used to write a general report (publicly available), as well as specific reports and factsheets for every province in the Netherlands that can be shared with partners and stakeholders. The dataset is shared on demand. Additionally, NBTC worked on a national dataset on tourism accommodation (hotels, camp sites, holiday parks/homes, marinas, etc.), as this did not yet exist for the Netherlands. The dataset is available for stakeholders to use in their own platforms and dashboards.
Demand
Leisure behaviour of the Dutch population (participation and amount of leisure activities, spending, origin and destination, travel mode, type of activity, etc.)
Holiday behaviour of the Dutch population (participation and number of holidays, destination, activities, travel party, spending, accommodation type, etc.)
Research on inbound tourism & day visits (profile and customer journey of inbound tourists and day visitors in the Netherlands)
Domestic day visits in Dutch cities (number of day visits and visitors per municipality, activities, travel size, spending, etc.)
Supply
Labour market monitor hospitality sector (job, businesses, labour mobility, vacancies, etc.)
Database on tourism accommodations (hotels, camp sites, holiday homes, etc.)
Bookings via online platforms (Eurostat)
Target groups
Segmentation model on the domestic travel and leisure market
International segmentation model for inbound tourism
Source: Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions
On the topic of standardisation, the data alliance is working on creating a framework for measuring the impact of tourism in the Netherlands, including both economic, social and environmental indicators, taking into account also the international developments on this topic. Two of the indicators are visitor intensity (relationship between the number of visitors and the number of inhabitants) and the CO2 footprint of travel to and within the Netherlands. The data can be accessed via the dashboard the State of Destination Netherlands.
The decision was taken to share the insights from the data alliance on an ad-hoc basis rather than though a national data hub, as this was deemed to best serve the needs of the main target groups (researchers and policy makers). The best way to share the data is thus determined for each specific project. This can for example be via a report, factsheet tables, or a tailored data set.
A key lesson learnt is the importance of collaboration and co-operation, both at a national and international level, in making the data alliance a success. Defining the relevant stakeholders and finding common ground is key for collaboration and the long-term success of the data alliance. International collaboration is especially important to explore new sources, and to create international standards and benchmarks. At national level, the National Data Strategy was an important step for the alliance, as it provides a strategic framework and priorities for the work going forward. Through the alliance, several organisations are now working together to strengthen data driven decision making in the tourism sector.
Although collaboration is important, another lesson is to advance when feasible. Independent pilot projects can help show the potential of a data alliance, even before it is formalised, and can provide good practices that can encourage otherwise undecided stakeholders to join.
For further information please contact:
Marieke Politiek, Manager Intell & Insights, Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions, mpolitiek@holland.com
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