Van Gogh's 125th b'day attracted a million foreign tourists; Boosted economy

The year long commemoration of the 125th anniversary of Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh's death drew nearly a million foreign tourists to the Netherlands, according to figures released by NBTC Holland Marketing on Tuesday, the Telegraaf reprots Last year marked the 125th anniversary of the famous Dutch artist's death. "Van Gogh is worldwide a very strong brand and this theme year also offered many leads for the international promotion of the Netherlands"m Max Schreuder of NBTC Holland Marketing said. With 154 thousand, most of these tourists came from Italy, followed by the United States with 117 thousand and France with 108 thousand. Together they spent some 500 million euros in the country. Foreign tourists visited, among other things, the Dutch van Gogh Heritage in Noord-Brabant, Van Gogh's work in the Kroller-Muller Museum in Gelderland and, of course, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.