Amsterdam is the most anti-tourism city in Europe – but visitor numbers continue to grow
At 11am on a Wednesday morning in Amsterdam’s Oudezijds Voorburgwal, the beer is already flowing. The weather in the heart of the city’s Red Light District is chilly and overcast, but that hasn’t deterred dozens of tourists from taking seats at canal side café tables and ordering drinks. The Dutch usually drink their beer in small glasses known as vaasjes but here the British pint is the serving size of choice. A group of young Englishmen seek to cure their hangovers with a round of Amstel, as do a trio of Spaniards and a gaggle of Americans.
The air smells strongly of cannabis smoke and just along the canal, a couple of sex workers are setting up shop for the day; pulling back the curtains on their red-lit windows and beginning to pout at the tourists passing by. It is, in many ways, a quintessentially Amsterdam scene. And many Amsterdammers are sick of it.
Fifteen years ago, the Dutch capital promoted itself to potential visitors as a place where anything goes. An advert produced by the tourism authority in 2010 showed a young tourist drinking shots, urinating in the street and bribing a policeman – and apparently loving every minute of it.
Partly as a result of such messaging, the film helped push Amsterdam firmly onto the tourist and stag party circuit. Despite being only a tenth the size of London, Amsterdam now draws over 20 million overnight stays a year. Attractions including the Rijksmuseum and Anne Frank House have become world famous, but millions come mainly for the Red Light District (also known as the Wallen), which is packed with brothels and drug-vending ‘coffee shops’.
In the last few years, however, the city’s leaders have turned against tourists – especially the youthful British kind. Authorities have banned smoking cannabis on the street, banned tour guides in the Wallen and forced the closure of many brothels and coffee shops.
Airbnb rentals have been restricted and large cruise ships will be completely forbidden by 2035. Adverts encouraging visitors to go wild have also been replaced with ones telling them not to come.
If Brits Google a term like “Stag party Amsterdam” or “Pub crawl Amsterdam” they may now see an advert telling them: “Stay Away!” Last month, residents held a protest on the Leidseplein, at which they carried placards reading: ‘Tourism rules the city’ and ‘Stop the stroopwafel’ – a reference to the caramel biscuits which visitors devour by the truckload. A city which once welcomed tourists with wide open arms has become unusually hostile towards them.
For many residents, it’s obvious change is needed. Amsterdam’s historic centre is famously beautiful but has been disfigured by mass tourism. The Warmoesstraat, for instance, is one of the city’s oldest streets but if you walk along it today, you’ll see countless shops selling junk food, drug paraphernalia and sex toys. It is, one local told me, easier to buy a magic mushroom here than a loaf of bread.
Serious crime is rare, but some residents despair at the nightly public urination, shouting and fighting. Others are concerned about the drug trade. “I’m not going out after 6pm – there’s too much negative energy, not from the prostitutes but from the drug dealers”, says Mr Gione, a proud Amsterdammer who lives in the Wallen and prefers to withhold his first name.
He thinks tourists are essential for Amsterdam’s economy: “millions of euros are coming in with every cruise ship”. However, he also worries about safety. “The problem is some tourists’ bad behaviour”, he says. “It’s not all, but a few don’t have good behaviour, and treat this as a kind of Disneyland where they can do whatever they want”.
Amsterdam’s problems are not unique. Barcelona, Venice and other cities have also battled to reclaim their streets from tourists. What’s perhaps different about the Dutch capital, however, is that so many tourists come here with the explicit aim of doing things which are banned at home. As a local politician once brilliantly put it, this is a place where many people go ‘on holiday from their morals’.
Another problem is with the city’s cannabis-vending ‘coffee shops’, which are a star attraction for many British visitors.
Cannabis is not actually legal in Amsterdam. It is, rather, tolerated, with Dutch police choosing not to prosecute minor offences in the same way that others might turn a blind eye to motorists slightly exceeding the speed limit. This means that although coffee shops themselves are tolerated, their supply chains are sometimes of questionable legality, and illegal street dealers remain a problem.
Violence sometimes spills over in terrifying fashion. In 2019 a lawyer involved in a drug trial was gunned down in the street, and in 2021 a famous journalist also linked to drug trials was murdered in broad daylight not far from the Rijksmuseum. The risk to tourists is extremely low, but some locals feel tolerance has gone too far.
Some efforts at gentrification have been successful. Near the Oude Kerk, several former brothels have been turned into quirky little boutiques after being bought out by the government. More controversial are proposals to move most of Amsterdam’s famous red windows to a new ‘Erotic Centre’ outside the centre.
The mayor believes this would make prostitution safer and the city centre nicer. However, others are scathing about what they see as an attempt to cleanse the area of its character.
Nat Portnoy, an activist who offers tourists information on how to safely enjoy the Wallen, says: “This is the most precious and oldest part of the city, so obviously developers want to have a piece of it. They want to refresh the district and introduce new businesses which attract ‘quality’ tourists. But in this whole discourse the council forgot one important thing: to ask sex workers what they want”.
The debate continues, and the city’s future remains uncertain. Despite the anti-tourist campaigns, visitor numbers continue to grow, and the canalside bars are as packed as ever. There were more than 22 million overnight stays in Amsterdam in 2023, and the authorities forecast that number could rise to 26.6 million by 2026. Before then, in June this year, Amsterdam will celebrate its 750th birthday with a huge street party. The authorities expect it to draw quite a crowd.
How to do it
Easyjet flies from Luton, Manchester and other airports to Amsterdam from around £70 return. Hotel Library Amsterdam (0031202148868; hotellibrary.nl) has doubles from around £100 per night, not including breakfast
Ben Coates is the author of ‘The Invention of Amsterdam: A History of Europe’s Greatest City in Ten Walks’, which will be published by Scribe in March
