Noordwijk is a medium-sized coastal community that attracts many tourists to its beaches, dunes, forests and bulb fields. Noordwijk is also the most important congress town on the Dutch coast. Tourism is important to Noordwijk however nature should not suffer from tourism, therefore the municipality tries to limit the environmental pressure created by the visitors. One way of doing this is to focus on quality tourism instead of quantity tourism, preventing the boulevards to become overcrowded.

Noordwijk has seen an increase of eco-labelled accommodations and restaurants since it acquired the QualityCoast label in 2007. Since then, two holiday parks, one hotel and a beach pavilion annex restaurant have acquired an ecolabel.

Noordwijk intents to increase the number of eco-labels in the future.

Noordwijk has a stretch of 14 kilometres of sandy North Sea beaches. The sea is clean and Noordwijk has been awarded a Blue Flag label, indicating bathing water quality, for years. Visitors can walk over the beach beyond Noordwijk to Zandvoort or Katwijk.

 

All water within the Noordwijk Municipality is treated after use. Dunea and Waternet are the companies responsible for the supply of drinking water in Noordwijk and its surroundings. The process of drink water production starts by infiltration of river water at great depths in the dunes where it will stay a period of approximately two months. After this period the water is pumped to the surface and goes through an additional filter process. This technique has the advantages that it is very sustainable and gives the drinking water a natural taste, in contrast to chemical cleaning.

As a rule there are no long traffic jams to get to the beaches of Noordwijk, parking space is available close to the beach and there are safe crossings from the boulevards to the beaches. However, traffic jams can occur on warm summer days so it is best to go by public transport or by bike to Noordwijk on those days.

The beach is very good accessible by bike, there are plenty of cycling paths and bike racks near the beach. In addition there are bicycles for rent in Noordwijk. Noordwijk is also easily reached by bus from cities such as Leiden, Den Haag, Katwijk and Schiphol Airport.

Where there is tourism there is waste, for a clean environment a proper waste management plan is important. Noordwijk takes many precautions to keep its municipality and beach clean. For example there are easy recognizable garbage cans on the beaches, on the boulevards and in the rest of the town.

The new sea defence system was finished early 2008 and looks state of the art! Additionally the municipality itself promotes the reduction of energy use itself.