City councillors in Amsterdam are moving towards a notion of discouraging foreign tourists coming to the city just for sex, drugs and alcohol.
Reported by The Times, the ‘discouragement campaign’ bids to reduce the amount of ‘nuisance’ Brits using the sex and drug industry in Amsterdam as a means to cut down unrolling and disorderly behaviour.
With Amsterdam on the mouth of seeing 18 million night stays for 2022 in the city, deputy mayor Sofyan Mbarki said:
“The aim of the discouragement 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.”
Mbarki added:
“We want to get rid of commercial parties who earn their money from vulgar touristic entertainment in the already scarce public space in the city centre: entertainment that does not take any account of Amsterdammers who live, live or work in the city.”
Mbarki has already presented a series of measures to fellow councillors which would see the ban of cannabis being smoked in city centre streets, reducing the number of stag and hen dos in the city and a reduction of river cruises on the famous canals.
If motions are passed, Mbarki has already indicted that sex tourism could be moved further out of the city to reduce the number of tourists arriving in the city of this reason; a proposal to move up to 100 red light windows out of the city has been presented, alongside the banning of selling marijuana after 4pm from Thursday to Sunday.
