Dutch tulips bloom at Keukenhof with no tourists to admire them

With dazzling displays of color including tulips in purple, yellow, and crimson hues worthy of the 17th-century tulip mania, the Keukenhof flower garden outside the Hague usually rivals Amsterdam's top museums as one of the Netherlands' largest tourist attractions.

This year, for the second year in a row, millions of tulips in the park and nearby fields are blooming now and will likely fade in silence, as the Keukenhof remains closed to visitors amid the coronavirus pandemic.

"Keukenhof is only open eight weeks a year, end of March until mid-May and the current situation in the Netherlands is that probably most of the (outdoor) roller coaster parks can open (in the second) half on May. And then the tulips are gone, so it will be a disappointment for us but probably no visitor will come at all this year," said Managing Director Bart Siemerink.

Siemerink expressed dismay at the Dutch government's lockdown measures that are forcing the park to keep its doors closed, saying it had the capacity to organize the flow of visitors so it's safe for them.

"People can (keep) a lot of distance (between) each other. We can spread out the visitors over the entire day because people will come here for about two, three hours a day," he said.

Keukenhof attracted around a million and a half visitors annually in the years before the pandemic, most of them from abroad.

Like many venues, the park is attempting to maintain some revenue and attention via online displays and television programs.

There was a brief ray of hope this week as the Dutch government slightly eased lockdown measures for the first time in months on April 28 -- in defiance of high infection and hospitalization rates.

But while restaurants were allowed to open outdoor dining areas to a limited number of guests, zoos and parks like the Keukenhof were not included.

(Source: Reuters) 

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