The Dutch government will overhaul its international branding strategy, dropping the name “Holland” and replacing it with "the Netherlands", the country’s real name.
The rebrand is an effort to move away from undesirable associations with Amsterdam’s red light district and the country’s famous cannabis cafes and to encourage exports and tourism.
The government, the tourism industry and business groups have signed up to the public relations push, which will begin later this year.
“It has been agreed that the Netherlands, the official name of our country, should preferably be used,” a spokeswoman for the Dutch ministry of foreign affairs said.
The Netherlands, rather than Holland, will feature prominently on promotions for the Eurovision Song Contest, which will be held in Rotterdam next May.
The national football team will only be referred to as the Netherlands as will the Dutch team at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020.
North and South Holland are regions of the Netherlands on the Western Coast. The region was ruled by the Counts of Holland from the 10th to the 16th century and later formed the most influential part of the Dutch Republic.
The Netherlands, meaning the low countries, was created after Napoleon’s defeat at the Battle of Waterloo more than 200 years ago, but Holland has been used to describe it ever since.
The foreign affairs spokeswoman said the rebrand would modernise the image of the Netherlands to present it as an “open, inventive and inclusive” country.
She said: “What is special is that agreement has now been reached with relevant parties from both the government, Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions and private organisations including top sectors and the Confederation of Netherlands Industry and Employers about the image of the Netherlands that we want to present to the rest of the world in a substantive and unambiguous manner.”
Up to 42 million people are expected to visit the Netherlands every year by 2030, an increase from the 18 million visitors last year.
The new approach, it is hoped, will encourage tourists to visit other areas of the country than just Amsterdam.
In May, the Dutch tourist board said it was stopping active promotion of Amsterdam, amid concerns there were too many visitors to the city.