Amsterdam has banned the construction of new hotels anywhere in the city as part of its latest tourism crackdown after launching a campaign to keep Brits away from the Dutch capital.
The local government announced in a statement on Wednesday that it wants to keep the city livable for residents and visitors – and therefore no overtourism.
It also set a new limit of 20 million euros on the maximum number of hotel stays by tourists that the city is willing to accept each year.
In the context of the fight against mass tourism, a new hotel can only be built in Amsterdam if another hotel closes, if the number of available sleeping places in the city does not increase and whether the new hotel will be better – for example more sustainable.
However, there will be some exceptions to the policy, Mayor Femke Halsema said in a statement.
The rule does not apply to new hotels that have already obtained a permit.
Amsterdam has banned the construction of new hotels because the city is cracking down on mass tourism
The city aims to keep the number of tourist overnight stays below 20 million annually
Despite seven years of stricter policies regarding new hotels, there are currently still about twenty hotels in the planning phase.
The city has actively tried to limit the number of tourists, which number in the millions per year, mainly by discouraging sex and drug-related tourism to the red light district.
Many parts of the city already had a ban on the construction of new hotels, but the new ban makes the whole of Amsterdam a ‘no area’ for new hotels.
The decision has been made in an effort to control the number of tourists visiting the popular holiday hotspot.
The city aims to keep the number of tourist overnight stays below 20 million annually.
According to the NL TimesIn 2023 alone, there were more than 20.6 million hotel nights – not counting people who stayed in holiday homes, B&Bs or on cruises.
The new limit of 20 million is the result of a petition signed by 30,000 Amsterdam residents calling for stricter measures within the tourism sector.
“However, despite the strict hotel policy, new hotels are still under construction and a number of new hotels are being added,” the city said.
‘This is due to projects that have already been permitted’, but also to locations that are still intended for hotels.
‘The number of hotels still in the pipeline in this way has decreased in recent years. When the accommodation policy was established in 2017, an inventory included 58 ongoing initiatives. There are currently 26,” it added.
It comes after the Netherlands launched a ‘digital dissuasion campaign’ last year, telling young Brits to ‘stay away’ if they planned to visit the city because of its infamous red light district and cannabis coffee shop culture.
This included a limit on the number of flights landing at Schiphol, partly for environmental reasons and in an effort to improve the lives of beleaguered city residents.
The Netherlands is also trying to change its image as a sex and drugs hub
Prostitutes stand behind windows in the Red Light District in Amsterdam on July 1, 2020
Amsterdam launched its campaign in March, aimed at British people aged 18 to 35
Figures were presented at the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) in October by ForwardKeys, which studied booking data for the industry.
Olivier Ponti, vice president of insights at ForwardKeys, said: “The Netherlands has placed a limit on air connectivity. That’s clearly a hurdle and they’ve launched demarketing campaigns telling people to stay home.”
The Netherlands is also trying to change its image as a sex and drugs hub and has even proposed a ‘mega brothel’ on the outskirts of Amsterdam to move sex work out of the centre.
The Dutch Tourism Board was believed to be the first ever to actively stop promoting tourism when it made the decision to change its brand name in 2019.
In March last year, the Dutch capital launched its dissuasion campaign to deter would-be sex and drug tourists from traveling to the city for short, disruptive stays.
It would provide special warnings to potential travelers when they searched for terms like ‘bachelor party Amsterdam’ or ‘pub crawl Amsterdam’.
“The campaign starts in Great Britain and focuses on men in the age category of 18 to 35 years,” the municipality of Amsterdam said in a statement.
‘This online discouragement campaign is aimed at nuisance tourists who want to visit Amsterdam to ‘go crazy’, with all the consequences that entails.’
The campaign, called ‘Stay Away’, means people will see special warnings when they search for terms such as ‘bachelor party Amsterdam’ or ‘pub crawl Amsterdam’.
In the coming year it would be expanded to “potentially causing nuisance visitors from the Netherlands and other EU countries,” the statement said.
Amsterdam also announced a ban on smoking cannabis in the Red Light District in February last year, coupled with further restrictions on alcohol consumption and earlier closures of cafes, bars and sex clubs.