On behalf of the National Data Alliance, NRIT Research and Bureau Nijdam will create a national dataset with accommodation accommodations. This dataset will be freely accessible and kept up to date for the next five years. This concerns a broad inventory of accommodation options including hotels, guesthouses, B&Bs, cottage sites, camping sites, group accommodations and marinas.
Insight into supply is essential for careful coordination of supply and demand and taking the right policy measures. At the moment, the total accommodation offering is only partially and fragmentarily visible. Moreover, it is not at the right geographical level and with hardly any capacity information.
Cause
According to many in the sector, the supply of accommodation accommodation is currently insufficiently clear, at national, provincial and regional level. The available statistics only include part of the available supply, while insight into the full range of accommodation accommodations in the Netherlands is of great importance for, among other things, tourism and spatial policy. Furthermore, without knowledge of the available supply, demand management is only possible to a limited extent, policy measures cannot be sufficiently substantiated and it is difficult to assess whether there is market space when assessing development plans. Insight into the supply is also an important basis for the vitalization of holiday parks and combating undermining at holiday parks. For this wide range of reasons, provinces, regions and municipalities, as well as entrepreneurs, financiers and developers, wish to gain more insight into the supply of tourist accommodation accommodations.
Existing statistics
The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) currently publishes monthly figures on the number of (opened) tourist accommodation accommodations in the Netherlands, including the number of sleeping places. Unfortunately, these statistics do not provide a complete picture. In practice, there is a lot of supply that falls outside the CBS definitions, such as tourist accommodations for personal use (mobile homes on annual pitches, second homes), cabin boats, private rental offers and very small accommodations. In addition, the data is only available at an aggregated level. Finally, it is not possible to gain insight into the total supply using this statistic because companies with different types of accommodation offer appear in both (sub)statistics.
Desired information needs
In the leisure sector and among policymakers, there has long been a great need for insight into the entire range of accommodation on offer, including accommodations that fall outside the CBS statistics. In addition, there is a desire to have a more detailed picture of the different types of accommodation available. At least as important is insight into the location and distribution of these accommodations. Total numbers per region are not sufficient, there is a need for locations of providers so that the offer can also be mapped geographically. Several regions have already worked on an inventory of the total supply of tourist accommodation, but a comparable national supply is lacking.
That is why there is a great desire to be able to compare data from different regions. After all, tourism does not adhere to municipal or provincial boundaries, so the offer must therefore be fully visible. Finally, it is important to be able to monitor developments over time: is there growth or shrinkage in supply and if so, to which types of accommodation does this apply?
Method developed
The ‘Exploration of Insight into the Supply of Accommodation’ carried out in 2023 shows that, based on the nationally available sources used, approximately 85% of the accommodation supply in the Netherlands (excluding private rental) can be mapped. A more complete picture than is currently often available in practice and which, according to those involved, is needed. An even higher percentage may be feasible if proposed actions such as integrating points of interest (POIs) via Google and increasing the quality of relevant data sources can also be achieved. Mapping 100% of Dutch tourist accommodation could be a utopia.
From step-by-step plan to implementation
The exploration has resulted in an extensive step-by-step plan on the basis of which data can be extracted from four sources: Basic Register of Addresses and Buildings (BAG), Basic Register of Topography (BRT), Chamber of Commerce Trade Register, LISA Register of Establishments. Naturally, there is overlap in the sources, but the exploration also shows that each source provides additional data.
Based on the results of the exploration, the National Data Alliance now wants to implement it in collaboration with all provinces. That is why, at the end of 2023, after a quotation process, NRIT Research was commissioned to carry out this inventory on behalf of the LDA.
In concrete terms, this means that NRIT Research, in collaboration with the Nijdam agency, will create one national dataset with accommodation accommodations in the main categories of accommodation with hotel services, residential recreation and water recreation. In addition, we wish to update this file annually. The LDA wants the result to be an open dataset, in the sense that it is accessible to the provinces via a database or map layer, for use in their analyzes and dashboards. It is expected that a first dataset will be available around the summer of this year.
Source and more information: www.nritmedia.nl
