Van Gogh draws more visitors than historic windmills and Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam

The Van Gogh Museum closed 2017 with a new record of 2.26 million visitors, which makes it the most visitors in the Netherlands. "This milestone shows that Van Gogh still inspires an uncountable number of people from the whole world. That is fantastic", Axel Rüger, director of the museum, told Het Parool.

There was also an increase of almost four percent in the number of people in possession of the Museumkaart in 2017. Sone 1.35 million people now have a Museumkaart and the cards were used a total of 8.7 million times, an average of 6.6 times per person.

he Zaanse Schands, a small village close to Amsterdam in which the 18th and 19th centuries are brought to life, had more than 2,.2 million visitors last year, making it the region's top tourist attraction. In 2016 around 1.8 million people turned out to see the old windmills and picturesque landscape that attract visitors, of which 90% were tourists.

Meanwhile, the national art gallery Rijksmuseum recorded a decrease in its number of visitors. Last year it received 2.16 million art enthusiasts, a slightly smaller amount compared with the 2.2 million visitors in 2016 and 2.35 million in 2015, according to Het Parool's collection of figures on regional attractions.

With its daredevil take on a common playground swing, the A'DAM tower on Amsterdam Noord brought in hundreds of thousands of people, many of whom jumped on the ride that swung them over the high-rise's ledge. The Lookout at A'dam counted 485,000 visitors, and an overall increase in the number of foreign tourists finding their way to the rooftop of the former Shell building. Some 200,000 swung out over the edge of the tower at a 100 meters height.

The renovation work at the Anne Frank House did not affect the number of visitors last year. The famous hiding place attracted 1.27 million people. Renovations there will not affect the authentic aspects of the house and are aimed to provide a better insight on the historical context of Anne's life story.

Amsterdam's main modern art museum, the Stedelijk, also increased its visitors, with 680,000 people walking through its galleries this year. This increase is thanks to the expositions of audience favorites such as Jordan Wolfson, Ed van der Elsken and Keith Haring.

"These positive developments are mainly thanks to the diversity in the collections, related activities in museums and the spread of museums in the country" said Mirjam Moll, promotion manager of the Museumvereniging on Monday to Het Parool.

The card exists since 1981, and is managed by the Stichting Museumkaart. The Museumkaart costs 59.90 Euros for adults and 32.45 for the youth card.