The city of Amsterdam in the Netherlands has begun a tourist campaign with the specific intention of asking certain tourists to stay away and to not visit. It is an attempt to discourage tourists that plan to visit to party hard, starting with potential tourists in the U.K. and then expanding to other European countries.
Amsterdam has long held a certain attraction for British tourists, specifically young men, who stereotypically arrive for a few days in large groups, drinking and smoking cannabis in local cafes and bars and then visiting the red light district and more often than not, engaging in anti-social behavior.
This campaign is intended to discourage them from visiting, as the city is seeking a makeover—it doesn’t want to be party central anymore, nor known for its sex, drugs and rock and roll image. It would rather focus on its rich history, its vibrant food scene and its love of art.
Amsterdam has allowed sex workers to legally operate in its medieval city center for centuries but starting this month, it will now force many of them to close at 3 in the morning instead of 6am. Bars will now close at 2am instead of being allowed to stay open all night. Later, in May, it is intending to ban cannabis smoking in public.
Crucially, for any would-be visitors aged between 18 to 35, planning a trip to Amsterdam in the U.K., when they type certain terms into their search engines, such as ‘stag party in Amsterdam’, ‘cheap hotel Amsterdam’ or ‘pub crawl Amsterdam’ they will see pop ups that inform them of a new clamp down, huge fines if they misbehave and even the risk of returning back to the U.K. with a criminal record.
The campaign is part of the Visitors Economy Vision 2035 and after starting with the U.K., the campaign will be rolled out to young people across the Netherlands too. Whilst young Brits have a reputation for drunken brawling on European streets, the Dutch have received just as fierce criticism in recent years for causing riots in Rome and raving in Spain, as reported by The Guardian.
The Deputy Mayor Sofyan Mbarki said that while tourists are obviously still welcome, the city no longer wants people who will misbehave and cause a nuisance. Mbarki acknowledged that the city was doing more than other European cities but that in order to be sustainable and “to keep our city liveable we now have to choose for restriction instead of irresponsible growth.”
The city is also launching another campaign called ‘How To Amsterdam’ telling people what is and isn’t acceptable behaviour (the latter being categorised as urinating in public, being drunk and disorderly, causing noise pollution and buying drugs from street dealers).
Later phases of the project include research into the idea of taxing tourist activities and limiting the number of river cruises allowed.
The move by Amsterdam’s City Council comes as many other European cities are looking to increase sustainable tourism at the same time as protecting local residents and meeting environmental objectives. Barcelona and Venice are two of the European cities reliant on unsustainable tourist practices for economic reasons and in recent years, both have been increasingly trying to navigate the push and pull between economic and environmental impulses.
Venice, for instance, has recently announced plans to limit Airbnb rentals in the city centre to reduce the impact of tourists and an entrance fee to anyone not spending the night in a hotel.