Amsterdam bars cruises from docking in city as tourism increases
Amsterdam will bar cruise ships from docking in the city center as part of a broader effort to curb pollution and reduce the large numbers of tourists who visit the Dutch capital. The City Council passed a proposal Thursday to close a terminal where more than 100 cruise ships dock each year not far from the central train station.
«The motivation of the proposal from the City Council was to reduce the number of tourists, but also for environmental reasons,» Amsterdam's deputy mayor, Hester van Buren, said in a statement Friday. The municipality has not yet determined when the change will take effect.
The cruise ship measure was the latest attempt by Amsterdam to cap the number of visitors and crack down on bad behavior as the tourism industry has rebounded, addressing residents' long-standing grievances linked to overcrowding and rowdy tourists. Last year, the city drew about 20 million visitors, and in 2021, close to 9 million tourists came either for a day trip or overnight, according to city data.
To appease the city's 900,000 residents, the local government this spring introduced a raft of new measures aimed at sending a message to disruptive tourists to behave or stay away. It has banned the smoking of marijuana on the streets of its popular red-light district, mandated earlier closing hours for cafes and restaurants and prostitution businesses, and banned the sale of alcohol in stores after 4 p.m.
from Thursday to Sunday. The city also released an ad campaign in March aimed at British men ages 18 to 35, threatening fines for those who come to the city for a «messy night.» «Amsterdam prides itself on being a very open and tolerant city,» said Ko Koens, a professor of new urban tourism at Inholland University of
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