Targeting the Dutch audience in the Hospitality industry is a bit challenging! Your Message to them must be brilliant with a great eye on the details of every piece of content you are sharing with them.
Baarle
Do you know what this article photo is about? Let me tell you shortly. This photo is about a city named BAARLE. A town with one of the most complex borders in the world. Baarle-Hertog in Belgium and Baarle-Nassau in the Netherlands. Furthermore, do you know that there are 22 pieces of Belgium surrounded by the Netherlands and 10 Dutch areas in Belgium?
The Netherlands is a small country but it is very civilized and fully equipped with all the modern technologies. On top of them the internet. The Dutch language is a language used in both The Netherlands and a part of Belgium. How can we attract both when you are targeting the hospitality market there? The first challenge is that the audience in The Netherlands speaks pure Dutch and are perfect English speakers as well. The Belgians speak a different dialect of the Dutch language which is Flemish. If you are targeting The Netherlands only you can keep some famous English words known worldwide as is. In Belgium, you need to be careful of the following. When people speak Flemish, they pronounce their words leaning to the French language as the Dutch language leans more to the English pronunciation.
Quick Facts:
- Dutch speakers expect very high-quality digital marketing products because they have a great internet experience (40 MB/s)!
- Especially in the B2C market, for example, when you are targeting tourists and guests for your hotel, they highly appreciate your message to be in Dutch.
- Dutch speakers are exposed to a high number of high-quality marketing staff. You need to unique.
- E-Commerce is booming there. Online purchasing is on top which increases your chance to gain more guests for your hotel. Subject again to provide High-Quality content and in Dutch.
- Related to e-Commerce they prefer direct bank transfers rather than using PayPal to avoid in between commission. It is very easy there. They use a small device connected with their bank account and pay from the comfort of their home. Like this, you can transfer your booking amount directly to the hotel bank. Dutch people are very used to this. Also, they don’t like to pay with Credit Cards! So, if you are going to deal with the Dutch market, you need to be prepared for these financial privileges.
- Facebook is the preferred social media platform, Snapchat for younger people. Twitter is only for certain niches like politicians and technical employees.
- In Belgium, people prefer to search online but not to purchase online.
Tourism in The Netherlands
ِAlso, Tourism is a growing industry in The Netherlands and in 2018 there were 32,5 milliard euro spend by tourists. The top tourists for The Netherlands are the German and Belgium people. It is expected that The Netherlands is going to attract 29 million people by 2030. As a big part of Belgium speaks Dutch you are reaching two separated countries at once. Now, this does not seem attractive to spend a huge budget on localizing your products into Dutch. Just localizing your offers for special events will leave a good image and will attract them. Dutch people like to travel a lot and discover other places and cultures. They take a good amount of their free time searching where their next destination/vacation will be, and they use their travel agencies to help them reach their decision. Everything at the travel agency that is being given to look at is in the Dutch language. So, for big enterprise hotels using CMS’s like Sitecore and Episerver, the Dutch language can be added and with a small budget, they can localize their content into Dutch.
To conclude, Digital Marketing and Localization, especially for Hospitality, is a talent that is complemented by cultural awareness of the target audience as well as their way of living. This makes us able to effectively communicate with them. Dutch speakers are a great example. In the next article, let’s go more into detail about the characteristics of the Hospitality Industry in this area of the world.
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