Keukenhof attracts record 1.5 million visitors
Flower park Keukenhof in Lisse closed its doors for the year this weekend. In the 60 days it was open this year, the Netherlands' biggest flower park attracted a record number of 1.5 million visitors, almost double the 800 thousand tickets the park sold in 2013, the Telegraaf reports.
Keukenhof welcomed visitors from more than a hundred different countries. As always, most visitors were Dutch with 20 percent, followed by 15 percent Germans and 10 percent Americans. The flower park was also a popular attraction for children this year, with 108 thousand kids' tickets sold, an increase of 20 thousand compared to 2017.
This season, the warm Easter days were definitely the park's busiest times. Some 200 thousand people went to admire the flowers in Keukenhof over Easter weekend. Each day on Easter the park had to call on people to rather visit Keukenhof on another day, because the parking lots were full and traffic backed up.
The crowds regularly led to traffic problems in the Bollenstreek. The management of Keukenhof wants to meet with the provinces and municipalities involved to come up with solutions for a better traffic flow on peak days, director Bart Siemerink said to the Telegraaf.
The municipal council in Lisse proposed that Keukenhof give all residents a free ticket to the park to compensate for the traffic nuisance. But Siemerink doesn't like that idea. "We already have nice discount schemes for our fellow regional residents."
Keukenhof will open again on March 21st next year. The theme for next year will be 'A world full of colors', whereby attention will be paid to the multicultural background of the visitors.
