Amsterdam

Amsterdam, the capital city of the Netherlands, attracts much attention both at home and abroad for a wide variety of reasons. For example, Amsterdam has one of the world’s most important, most interesting historic city centres. More than a third of the buildings in the historic city centre date from before 1850. The big old city, covering 0.8 square kilometres, consists of 90 islands separated by some 100 kilometres of canals and connected by over 200 bridges.

With nearly 750,000 inhabitants originating from 140 countries, Amsterdam is the biggest city in the Netherlands. Amsterdam is also one of the Netherlands’ most densely built cities, with a housing density of 2,100 homes per m².

The economy in Amsterdam and the surrounding region is based on five important cornerstones: industry and technology, the ICT and service sector, the Amsterdam harbour, Schiphol Airport and tourism. 2.8 million tourists take a boat tour of the canals each year, making the canal boat tours one of Europe’s major attractions. 16 million tourists visit Amsterdam and its surroundings each year, coming to see Amsterdam, Haarlem, Zaanstad and Zandvoort

Together with Utrecht, Rotterdam and The Hague, Amsterdam is part of the Randstad, one of Europeans most important urban and economic areas. The Netherlands’ most important airport, Schiphol, is located about 20 kilometres from the capital city.
Good connections are absolutely necessary in this densely populated, highly constructed area. Public transport is an indispensable asset to mobility. The size and nature of the Amsterdam region are ideal for public transport and offer a range of opportunities for the Amsterdam city transport company GVB.

Link to official Amsterdam website.