The Holland Metropole region is continuing to excel in terms of connectivity and infrastructure, according to the latest research by The Business of Cities.

Air passengers are a first visible sign of how special the region is and the three main Holland Metropole airports welcoming nearly 80 million passengers in 2018. This put the region ahead of Hong Kong and Singapore, and just behind the San Francisco region, the report said.

Passenger numbers have grown faster than in other regions with a year-on-year growth of just above 4% and, the researchers say, among regions of fewer than 10 million people, Holland Metropole may become the world’s leading aviation hub in the next decade.

The region is also an important cargo hub but, the researchers say, its super- connectedness stands out most of all in its internal connectivity. ‘Its polycentric character means the region offers the unique ability to connect multiple large cities directly by rail. Other regions, by contrast, have inherited a pattern of growth around a single centre which has reduced access to jobs and other key urban assets,’ the report said.

The region boasts an average travel time between the five centres of just over 50 minutes (second only to Greater Boston) and an average speed of around 85km/h (third only to Munich Metro and the London region).

Holland Metropole’s special connectivity is also reflected in the fact that it is the only region among its peers to provide direct rail travel between all its major centres, making living in Rotterdam, working in Amsterdam and going out to the theatre in Utrecht a realistic option.

At the same time, Holland Metropole’s digital infrastructure platform remains very strong by global standards. Having a strong digital infrastructure boosts digital workforce skills, internet usage and access to smart services, so it is unsurprising, the report notes, that Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Eindhoven and The Hague all recently ranked in the top 20 cities in Europe for the number of people working in jobs in the ‘app economy’.

With 33 full and associate partners, and five start-ups in tow, the Holland Metropole group is out in force at this year’s Expo Real trade fair in Munich.

The Holland Metrople partners include investors, developers, architects and planners and the stand will feature a wide range of projects across all real estate sectors.

‘We have so much on offer that it might prove a squash to show off all the scale models of the projects properly,’ says Annemieke Verwoert of the project team.

The Holland Metropole stand offers plenty of space for meetings and networking, including a bar and catering unit, plus a daily schedule of seminars and workshops.

Visit the stand in hall A2, stand 230

‘Holland Metropole is becoming the multi-city metropolis to watch’

Greg Clark and Tim Moonen, Business of Cities

The past year has seen significant change in the number of city benchmarks and there are now well over 500 such studies produced worldwide.

And, according to a new report, Holland Metropole group is one of
the most frequently ranked
city regions worldwide, with more than 400 appearances
(in indexes and sub-indexes) across all five cities.

This, The Business of Cities report states, is partly due to the way each city borrows scale from the others, and partly due to its unique system of economic specialisation.

It is also particularly striking that across all benchmarks, Amsterdam has maintained its position as the third highest performing city region worldwide, overtaking Paris and now behind only London and New York.

Wider region

Over 40% of all benchmarks take into account the wider metropolitan and regional level of performance, reflecting the success of Amsterdam but also the appeal of the wider region.

Amsterdam may take first place in global studies such as the Healthiest Cities Index, Best Cities for Tech Enthusiasts and Qatar FCA Global Green Finance Index (for the depth of its green finance).

But what has really been important for Holland Metropole’s rise is that the region’s other constituent cities are also performing very well, The Business of Cities report states

App economy

For example, Utrecht, Rotterdam and Eindhoven all rank in the top 20 in Europe for the number of app economy jobs (ppi) and Eindhoven, Rotterdam and The Hague all rank in the top 25 global innovation hubs in EMEA. (Hickey & Associates).

Rotterdam, The Hague and Eindhoven also rank in the top 45 globally for talent competitiveness (INSEAD).

‘Success is enhancing the identity and distinctiveness of all five cities, within a single compelling package,’ say the report’s authors Greg Clark CBE and Tim Moonen. ‘Holland Metropole is becoming the multi-city metropolis to watch.’

Download the report ‘Fulfilling Potential’