News
24 mei 2024
Keukenhof concludes successful 2024 anniversary season, having attracted over 1.4 million visitors between 21 March and 12 May 2024.
In celebration of Keukenhof’s 75th anniversary, her Royal Highness Princess Margriet opened the anniversary edition of the flower display on 19 March. Keukenhof owes its international fame to generation after generation of dedicated, flower-loving people. Accordingly, this year’s anniversary celebrations are a show of gratitude and pride: Post NL (the Dutch postal service) issued an international stamp; Keukenhof organised an anniversary flower display; RTL (a Dutch TV channel) broadcast a documentary about Keukenhof’s 75th anniversary, and last week saw the Metropole Orkest jazz and pop orchestra take visitors on a journey through music history during an open-air concert. The documentary is available for streaming on Videoland, and the Keukenhof Concert will be broadcast on NPO 1 on 20 May (Whit Monday) and Sunday 16 June.
In total, the park welcomed visitors from over 100 different countries. Most visitors came from the Netherlands (20%), followed by Germany, the US, the UK and France. There was also a rebound in the number of visitors from Asia, though not to pre-pandemic levels.
Keukenhof’s time-slot system enables it to effectively manage the average number of visitors per day, improving logistics to and from the park and ensuring everyone gets to enjoy the best possible experience of the park. These two aspects will continue to be at the centre of Keukenhof’s attention.
Tickets for Keukenhof were sold out on several weekends this season, and the car park was often full of campervans.
Many visitors travelled to the park on the Keukenhof Express, a direct train service from Schiphol Airport, Leiden, RAI Amsterdam or Haarlem. There were also renewed shuttle services by tour operators from Amsterdam to Keukenhof.
Keukenhof has a permanent body of 40 staff and up to 1,000 team members in seasonal employment. ‘We loved celebrating this special season, and our visitors clearly loved our flowers, too! This was my first season, and I’m proud of how all the team and other helpers let their passion for flowers and welcoming guests shine through,’ says Sandra Bechtholt, Keukenhof’s director.
The park welcomed many visitors thanks to a combination of early blooms in the park and flowering fields in the nearby ‘Bollenstreek’, the country’s flower-bulb region. While low night-time temperatures at the park helped the flowers to retain their vibrant colours, subsequent rainfall negatively affected flowering in the final opening week. Nevertheless, the late-flowering varieties were still in bloom after the spent flowers in the other beds had been dead-headed. Until the very last day, the garden team expertly tended the flowers and even managed to plant additional tulips and other flowers at several locations.
In 2025, Keukenhof will be open from 20 March to 11 May inclusive.
