Amsterdam has had its fill of sex and drug tourists
Amsterdam is fighting back against ‘nuisance’ Brits and other foreign louts with new restrictions to stop tourists travelling there for drink, drugs and sex.
Amsterdam is fighting back against foreign louts with an advertising campaign and new restrictions to stop tourists travelling there for drink, drugs and sex.
The city will begin a “discouragement campaign” in the spring to put off “nuisance” British tourists seen as the principal menace to peace and quiet on Amsterdam’s 17th and 18th century streets and canals. Councillors said it would be a “targeted, digital discouragement campaign on foreign visitors who only come to Amsterdam for alcohol, drugs and sex”.
Sofyan Mbarki, the deputy mayor who is in charge of the initiatives, said: “The aim of the campaign is to keep out visitors that we do not want. If we love the city, we must take action now.
“Action is needed to prevent nuisance and overcrowding. Amsterdam is a world city and bustle and liveliness come along with this but to keep our city liveable we need to choose limits instead of irresponsible growth.”
Amsterdam’s cannabis coffee shops are a magnet for often loutish groups of stag and hen parties.
Drunk or stoned groups of young men walk to the city’s famous red light district, renowned for its legalised brothels with prostitutes on display behind shop windows, creating a toxic atmosphere for residents. The stay-away campaign will initially focus on British tourists and, if successful, will tackle nuisance-causing groups from other countries, according to Noord-Holland, the broadcaster.
This week Mbarki presented a series of measures to the city’s municipal executive, including a ban on smoking cannabis in city centre streets, reducing numbers of nuisance stag parties and pub crawls and limits on the number of river cruises.
There are also plans to move about 100 brothel windows away from the Wallen district near the central train station to a new “erotic” centre and hotel.
Councillors are concerned that the red light district has become a voyeuristic and offensive tourist attraction far removed from the port city’s earthy and romantic past as celebrated by Jacques Brel’s song Amsterdam.
The council is also examining whether to ban the sale of hashish and marijuana after 4pm from Thursday to Sunday.
Mbarki’s plan has the long-term aim of keeping tourism below ten million overnight stays each year; numbers have almost doubled from 5.3 million in 2010. One long-term project, if legal problems can be surmounted, is to limit the number of cheaper hotels and holiday rentals, with possible bans in central districts which have been overwhelmed by tourists.
Hotels of “moderate quality” will be encouraged with grants to convert premises into homes or offices and the council will negotiate an agreement with the hospitality sector to set a maximum number of beds in the city.
The real objective is to move Amsterdam away from the lower-end market of drug, drink and sex tours that put little back into the city’s economy but creates a nuisance.
“We want to get rid of commercial parties who earn their money from vulgar touristic entertainment in the scarce public space in the city centre: entertainment that does not take any account of Amsterdammers who live or work in the city,” Mbarki said.
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