NZ story reaches a million Dutch readers
25 Mar 2009
Nearly one million Dutch people now own at least one book about New Zealand thanks to an annual literary event in the Netherlands. Each year a famous Dutch author is commissioned to write a ‘gift book’ that's given free to anyone who buys a book during 'Dutch Book Week'.
This year's featured author is Tim Krabbe, and last week around 980,000 copies of his book A Table Full of Butterflies - a story set in New Zealand - were given away to Dutch readers. That puts the book into one in seven Dutch households.
A Table Full of Butterflies is about a travel journalist's son who goes to high school in New Zealand. The boy embarks on adventures based on a book of Māori legends he was given as a child.
Dutch visitors
There were 25,171 visitors to New Zealand from the Netherlands in the year ended February 2009. This makes the Netherlands the third-largest source of visitors to New Zealand from Europe, behind the UK (273,120) and Germany (62,240).
The Dutch are high-spend and long-stay visitors, spending an average of $3,766 per visit (year ending September 2008).
Dutch Book Week
'Dutch Book Week' or ‘De Boekenweek’ runs for 10 days in March.
First held in 1932, it aims to remind the public of the wealth of books available.
In a quirky twist, the gift book can be used on one selected Sunday to travel free by Dutch Rail. On 15 March, 180,000 Dutch people used the book to travel by train.
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