Beauty and the Beast: Amsterdam and its tourists Large terraces in Amsterdam no longer allowed

Beauty and the Beast: Amsterdam and its tourists

Amsterdam is often called the Venice of the North, and nowadays the city is becoming even more like its Italian namesake. Like Venice, Amsterdam is listed as an UNESCO World Heritage Site, has breath-taking canals and spectacular architecture, and features world-class museums with Rembrandts and Van Goghs. However, its beauty and popularity as a tourist destination come with a downside. Amsterdam’s historic city center, including its Red Light district, faces being turned into an amusement park with hordes of drunken tourists urinating in doorways and scattering litter on its streets and picturesque canals. To prevent further degeneration for the residents of these neighborhoods, Amsterdam’s town council proposes draconian measures.

Before Covid, in 2019, Amsterdam saw than 22 million tourists per year, a significant rise in number considering the city only had 5 million visitors in 2010. For a city of 905,000 inhabitants, that is a lot, and amounts to 24 tourists for every resident. With a return to pre-Covid normal, officials expect hordes of tourists, and primarily to the districts in Amsterdam’s center. Many local residents feel unsafe with the large numbers of visitors, especially the sex workers in the Red Light district, where flocks of drunken and/or stoned tourists disturb the peace. Turnstiles Amsterdam’s major, Femke Halsema, and town council aim to implement a strict policy to make areas that are frequented by tourists more inhabitable, especially for the districts that receive the lion’s share of tourists, such as the historic city center and Red Light district. One innovation is introducing turnstiles for specific districts to limit the numbers of tourists. Of course, Halsema would rather not have to take such measures, but other cities across Europe, including Venice, are also introducing turnstiles to restrict and deter excessive numbers of visitors from entering specific districts all at the same time. Amsterdam’s policy also includes limiting the space allotted to outdoor cafés and restaurants, prohibiting the sale of alcohol from Thursday until Sunday after 4pm in some districts, and implementing a crowd-control policy in the Red Light district with one-way pedestrian traffic in certain alleys and small streets. Moreover, the city council has already decreased the number of permits for tourist-aimed shops and banned new hotels from busy touristic areas.

Fewer coffeeshops The town council also proposes reducing the number of coffeeshops and implementing the sale of cannabis to only Dutch citizens, using an electronic system called i-criterium. This will reduce the overall number of coffeeshops, as tourists can no longer visit them. However, according to an I&O Research report, 24% of tourists will still visit the city and hope to purchase cannabis either illegally or ask a local to buy it for them. The BCD, the Dutch Union of Cannabis Retailers, fervently opposes the mayor’s proposed regulation. They argue their clients do not disturb the peace, since most cannabis smokers become starry-eyed and quiet. A new study into tourist behaviour concludes that more regulation of visitors to coffeeshops will not reduce the number of tourists or reduce the amount of noise in the city’s center either. The same study indicates that many of the residents of Amsterdam believe that the consumption of alcohol causes more disturbance of the peace than the use of cannabis; it argues that a ban on alcohol in some areas of the city would be more effective. However, for the municipality, banning alcohol consumption is more difficult to regulate.

Whatever the mayor and town council propose to curb the city from turning into an amusement park, it will not be popular among tourists or the many business owners who profit from tourists. Annually, tourists pump 8 billion euros in Amsterdam’s economy. It’s not easy being a beautiful city.

Written by Benjamin B. Roberts

As crowding in Amsterdam’s Red Light district continues, Mayor Femke Halsema, in a letter to the Amsterdam City Council, has announced a slew of new restrictions aimed at reducing this. The restrictions that will be implemented will include, but are not limited to, catering establishments removing their terrace extensions, stricter alcohol bans, and crowd control, possibly with turnstiles. Considering the recent Easter weekend, Halsema, in Het Parool newspaper, emphasized the great impact of tourism and the way it puts pressure on the city centre and surrounding areas. Halsema claims that the “critical limit” for disturbance caused by swarms of tourists has been reached. “King’s Day and Pride are exceptional days that belong to the capital, but the beautiful historic centre where people live should not be permanently used as an amusement park,” she says. According to Het Parool, from this month onwards, catering establishments in the Red Light district and the Nieuwmarkt will have to reduce their terraces. They were allowed to expand their catering areas during the Covid pandemic in a move to help the severely impacted hospitality industry. This terrace extension was temporary, and the inconvenience that tourists are now causing must be considered. “The rapidly increasing number of visitors and the nuisance this entails put unacceptable pressure on public space and the quality of life in the Red Light district,” says Halsema. Alcohol prohibition and one-way traffic moves Additionally, a comprehensive alcohol sales prohibition will put in place, meaning no alcoholic beverages can be sold after 4 PM from Thursday through Sunday. Given the increasing number of visitors and tourists, the municipality of Amsterdam will implement greater crowd management with immediate effect. One-way traffic is being implemented in several alleys in the Red Light district, as was already the case during the pandemic. In this period, traffic support workers steered tourists in the right directions at the canal and alley ends. This one-way traffic system should result in visitor numbers to the area being reduced to 70% of the numbers seen in 2019. Additionally, the city is considering whether turnstiles could be installed here to let visitors enter and leave the Red Light district. Furthermore, drug dealers on the streets will be subjected to increased enforcement. Amsterdam’s previous efforts to curb crowds In recent years, the city council has taken a number of steps to reduce and manage crowding. For instance, pub crawls and guided tours in the Red Light district are outlawed, and no alcohol may be consumed on the street.

Large terraces in Amsterdam no longer allowed

However, these were not sufficient to reduce nuisance to an acceptable level. Halsema says she is still working on additional measures, that may include an even stricter alcohol sales ban and an earlier closure time for cafes, bars and entertainment venues. In addition, Halsema is working on implementing medium- and long-term initiatives to change the city centre’s economic structure and monoculture. Although the city council opposes it, the mayor supports a temporary coffee shop ban for tourists. This follows research that unveiled that 58% of foreign tourists visiting Amsterdam do so only for the purpose of consuming cannabis. The city is also looking for a new site for sex workers outside of the city centre, so that the Red Light district may be closed. According to Halsema, there is a shortlist of eight potential locations, which she will soon update the council on. “These steps require further elaboration, including the necessary police and enforcement capacity, logistical preparation and legal preparation,” explains Halsema. Additionally, some promotion agencies, such as amsterdam&partners, have published online information campaigns to boost awareness of “desired behaviour” by tourists visiting the city. Overall, Halsema says, the city cannot refuse people who want to visit, but it is working to increase cultural tourism and reduce nuisance for its residents. Written by Nicole Kerr