One up, two down in Michelin Benelux guide

The Michelin publishing season continued last week with the release in Britain of its Benelux guide.

There are no new three-star restaurants in the guide and only one new two-star: the Vermeer restaurant at the Hotel Brabizon Palace in Amsterdam. Two of the two-star Dutch restaurants, Kaatje bij de Sluis in Blokzijl and Die Nederland in Vreeland, were downgraded to a single star.

The Netherlands had six new one-star restaurants, Belgium nine and Luxembourg one.

Altogether, the Benelux guide now has four three-star, 19 two-star and 138 one-star restaurants.

This year's guide, in common with the Great Britain and Ireland edition, carries a short commentary describing each establishment. This has increased the size of the book from 590 to 804 pages.

On releasing the guide in the UK, Michelin noted that hotel occupancy and restaurant bookings were both slightly down in 2002. Brussels, a major conference city, was particularly badly hit, with hotel occupancy 30% down compared with 2001.