12 mei 2020
22 million visitors have enjoyed Keukenhof Virtually Open in the past 8 weeks. Because the park was not open to the public this year, an online and television campaign was launched. Under the motto ‘if you cannot come to Keukenhof, we will bring Keukenhof to you’ Keukenhof brought the tulip splendour to people’s homes.
Keukenhof virtually open
Keukenhof shared 23 videos in 8 weeks via its social media channels, with new videos of the bloom in the park each week. The gardeners explained about the various flowers and showed beautiful places in the park. In a different way than usual, Keukenhof still remained the international showcase for the Dutch floricultural sector. The park bloomed beautifully thanks to the sunny spring.
“Keukenhof’s online campaign was successful,” says director Bart Siemerink. “Keukenhof already had 176,000 followers on Facebook before the spring. That grew to 267,000 in recent weeks. Instagram almost doubled the number of followers from 35,000 to 62,000. The reactions on Keukenhof’s campaign were positive: the park received many (handwritten) letters of support, thank you notes and responses via email and social media. This was heart-warming in this difficult time.”
New initiatives
An empty Keukenhof also offered the opportunity to show the park to the world in a unique way. This was done, among other things, by a Virtual Reality tour and a 360 degree walk through the park. More than 600,000 people watched these videos. The live stream on Facebook, in which director Bart Siemerink took viewers on a 30-minute guided tour of Keukenhof, was watched by more than 500,000 people. This allowed viewers to experience the park as if they were there in person.
Keukenhof on television
This season, various new collaborations were started with television channels at home and abroad. There was a wonderful collaboration with Omroep Max, a Dutch television channel: thanks to two 45-minute documentaries, over a million people enjoyed the spring images of Keukenhof. The broadcasts of other Dutch television shows were also viewed by millions of viewers in the Netherlands. Keukenhof was also shown abroad via ZDF, ARD, TF1, CBS and other major channels. In this way Keukenhof was able to reach a wide audience with colourful videos of the Dutch flowers. Thanks to a live performance by DJ Fedde Le Grand at SLAM FM and a video with violinist Rosanne Philippens, Keukenhof also appealed to other target groups this year, besides the visitors who normally come to the park.
Results season 2020
2020 was a year without visitors for Keukenhof and therefore a year without income. “Fortunately Keukenhof has had good seasons in recent years,” says Siemerink. “We are now working towards the next season. We are using this year’s preparations for 2021. We look forward to showing the park to our visitors in real life.”
Keukenhof will be open in 2021 from March 20 to May 9