First the autumn holidays, and then Dutch Design Week (DDW). For two weeks hotels, cafés, and restaurants in Eindhoven have been filled to capacity.
“Two wonderful weeks for us,” says Ruud Bakker, chairman of the Royal Dutch Hospitality and Catering Association (KHN) in Eindhoven. Over 335,000 visitors found their way to the DDW, and Eindhoven. An increase in visitor-numbers of over 10% compared to the 2016 event.
Foreign visitors are particularly welcome according to the chairman of the Eindhoven KHN. “They need to stay overnight somewhere, so they book a hotel. They visit restaurants taking time to enjoy good food, drinks, wine. Often they order several courses as well.”
The staff at Dommel 18 along Dommelstraat enjoyed the DDW, but are also rather relieved it is over. “It was really extremely busy. Every evening, we had to work extraordinarily hard”, says an exhausted employee, busy readying the terrace for what will likely be a rather quiet, ordinary Monday.
Ruud Bakker, who runs and owns the café-restaurant, fully understands what his staff is saying. “We planned and prepared carefully. For example, we did not have any special DDW dishes or courses on offer. Everybody here worked extremely hard.”
He has not yet calculated by how much his turnover increased during the past two weeks, but at any rate, he said, “Yes, turnover increased”.
Photo: DDW, Ossip van Duivenbode
Source: Studio040
Translator: Kate
