The Netherlands Will No Longer Be Called Holland (Video)

Now you never have to wonder if you’re booking a trip to Holland or the Netherlands, because the country has settled on an official name.

According to Matador Network, the Netherlands has officially decided it will only be called the Netherlands. In the past, the country’s name was interchangeable with calling it Holland, leading to quite a bit of confusion for tourists.

Technically, Holland specifically refers to two of the 12 provinces found in the Netherlands, North Holland and South Holland.

The decision was made to rebrand the Netherlands’ international reputation and managing an overflow of tourists who go to the country to visit Amsterdam, but no other areas, according to Forbes. People can’t get enough of quaint windmills, tulips, and biking along the canals.

In the past, branding like Visit Holland put special emphasis on cities in North and South Holland, including not only Amsterdam but also Rotterdam and The Hague. By getting rid of the name Holland, the Board of Tourism hopes this will encourage tourists to go to less-visited places in the Netherlands. After all, if you want to get your fill of stunning city canals, there’s also Utrecht. Or, if you’re looking for the perfect city for biking everywhere you go, a good option is to visit Giethoorn.

“To control visitor flow and leverage the opportunities that tourism brings with it, we must act now,” the Board of Tourism said in a statement, according to Forbes. “Instead of destination promotion, it is now time for destination management.”

The new re-branding campaign cost $319,000, according to Matador Network. This included the country’s logo to be updated from a picture of an orange tulip (the country’s official flower) with the name “Holland,” to a picture of the tulip with the initials “NL.”

Going forward, all companies, universities, embassies, and other governments will be referring to the country (as a whole) as the Netherlands, according to Matador Network.