VOLENDAM

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One of the benefit of having foreign guests is a reason to visit touristic areas. One of them is Volendam, in the north part of Netherlands. This fishing village is hillariously famous for tourist and no visit to Holland is completed without Volendam. And that is exactly the reason why many locals avoid this place : crowded with tourists. Once a while I let myself to be a tourist in Holland, like when I had a visit of my Japanese friend, MH.

Volendam is well-known for its old fishing boats and the traditional clothing still worn by some residents. The women's costume of Volendam, with its high, pointed bonnet, is one of the most recognizable of the Dutch traditional costumes, and is often featured on tourist postcards and posters (although there are believed to be fewer than 50 women now wearing the costume as part of their daily lives, most of them elderly). Visitors can have their pictures taken in traditional Dutch costumes. And guess what? I saw many Indonesian celebrity pictures on displays, including two ex-presidents of the Republic of Indonesia.


My Japanese friend and her son have enjoyed themselves, I supposed. They had fried fishes (this is a fishing village!), poffertjes (Dutch small pancakes), "gevoelde koek" (Dutch almond cakes) and of course we made a lot of pictures as every tourist does. It was nice to walk on a Sunday afternoon along the sea, the cafes and souvenir shops.

We could argue of course how fake this place is since it is a touristic destination. But on the other hand, what is wrong with a small village like Volendam which tries to generate income by exploring their culture and customs? For short stayed tourists, this kind of place is a perfect destination to get a flavour of Dutch in a glance. I myself thought it is smart of Volendam to be able to attract a lot of big buses year in year out despite of the fact nothing new in this village except normal life of the locals.

And I must say that domestically Volendam has relatively a lot of exposures on television since they are proud of a pop singer named Jan Smith. Later almost the whole village involved in a reality show on television basically triggered by Jan Smith. I never listen to even a song of Jan Smith but seeing how often he appeared on mass media, this guy must have a good show business in Holland and he becomes a kind of icon for Volendam. It seems that Volendam is a cheerful place to live, fishermen and artists mingled to create a sustainable business for the village. A smart positioning for Volendam considering that so many places in Holland with similar characters.

Probably experts of city marketing has something to learn from Volendam.

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