Amsterdam
attempts to stem its tourist flood and regain its soul
Millions
flock to the Dutch city every year, and residents say it is becoming
unrecognisable.
By MARIANNE
SLEGERS 1/15/17, 7:15 AM CET
AMSTERDAM — The
biggest city in the Netherlands is drowning. An influx of tourists
and new city dwellers have brought more noise, brawls and
overcrowding to the city and created a crisis at city hall.
Determined to save
their historic city from destruction by the hordes, local politicians
have put a stop to new hotels in most parts of the city and recently
limited the number of days people can rent out their homes on Airbnb.
Amsterdam’s
marketing bureau, which promotes the city, has had its budget cut by
more than 20 percent from €4.6 million last year to €3.8 million
this year. Concerned politicians are also trying to curb street music
and ban so-called “beer bikes” — vehicles on wheels that can
seat about 17 drinkers.
Amsterdam, a city of
almost 850,000 inhabitants, had 17 million visitors in 2016, up from
12 million five years earlier. If the upward trend continues, the
number of visitors could hit 30 million by 2025.
With a population
growth of 10,000 people every year, Amsterdammers are feeling the
squeeze.
“We are at risk of
becoming the Venice of the north if we don’t act now” — Tiers
Bakker
“We are at risk of
becoming the Venice of the north if we don’t act now,” said Tiers
Bakker, a city council member for the Socialist Party, referring to
the Italian city where many locals have been driven out of the
historic center because of tourism and eye-watering real estate
prices.
Other European
cities are having similar problems. In Barcelona, the mayor declared
war on tourism, launching an assault on short-term rental services
such as Airbnb and slowing down the issuance of licenses for new
hotels.
Noise and brawls
In Amsterdam,
officials’ concerns go beyond overcrowding and affordable housing
to include litter, noise and drug dealing and they intend to deploy
140 extra law enforcement officers in the city center. People living
near the central train station, the famous red light district of De
Wallen and the party area Leidseplein have filed more complaints
about noise, brawls and general nuisances from the influx of people.
Mariana Oliveira,
who works in a clothing shop in Haarlemmerstraat, a tourist area near
the Central Station, says the city’s popularity comes at a cost for
the city’s inhabitants. “The residents of Amsterdam are being
driven out because of the rental prices caused by the abuse of
Airbnb, illegal renting, hotels and luxury apartments. It’s not
like I am against democratizing of travel,” she said. “But
tourism in Amsterdam should definitely be more spread out over the
city.”
“If there were
fewer tourists, maybe more residents would be buying from us
instead,” said Margriet Metz, who works in a tobacco shop at the
Damrak, one of Amsterdam’s busiest streets. “It is really getting
out of hand. I often don’t recognize my own city anymore.”
The mayor of
Amsterdam, Eberhard van der Laan, emphasized the urgency of the
situation in a speech in late October. Though tourism has contributed
to the city coffers and helped it through an economic crisis, he
said, there is a limit to the city’s hospitality. “There are 300
million people from China and India getting ready to travel the
world,” he said. “We are in a hurry to do something.”
Van der Laan wants
to learn from other cities in Europe and hopes to work with Paris,
Lisbon, Barcelona, Vienna, Madrid and Reykjavik to regulate mass
tourism. During a tourism summit in Barcelona in November, they
agreed to share information on individual negotiations with Airbnb
and to ask the EU for help in retrieving personal information about
landlords who are operating illegally on Airbnb or other rental
sites.
Too little, too late
Amsterdam is to
organize another international tourism summit in the spring and more
concrete proposals on the cooperation between these European capitals
are expected in the course of this year.
But that’s not
enough for the opposition.
The city’s
governing political coalition “is acting rather late, and real
structural, fundamental measures have not been taken yet,” said
Jorrit Nuijens from the Green Left, which is part of the opposition.
The city’s three
governing parties, an ideologically mixed coalition of two liberal
parties and one socialist party, have only recently tried to align
their views on the issue.
For the liberal D66,
the biggest political delegation in the Amsterdam city council, a
busy city center is a good thing since it creates a flourishing
economy and more jobs. But the mayor’s rhetoric and changing public
opinion has made D66 acknowledge that measures to reduce the negative
impact of tourism are needed even if the party cautions that the city
needs to stay open for business.
“‘You can’t go
as far as shutting down the whole city,” said Jan Paternotte, a
member of the D66 party. “I sometimes get the impression that the
Greens would like to do that, even though they never make clear how.”
Their liberal
coalition partner the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, or
VVD, doesn’t favor too much regulation or interference, either. “We
need to act against the excessive growth of hotels, for instance, but
my liberal heart does hurt a little by putting in place
restrictions,” said Marja Ruigrok, a city council member for the
party.
In addition to a
recent agreement with Airbnb to restrict the length of time that
people can rent out their homes to 60 days, city officials also want
to cut back on opening hours and reduce the number of shops that
cater explicitly to tourists, such as those selling cheese, Nutella
and waffles. Another plan is to prevent tour buses having access to
the city center and move the cruise ship terminal to another part of
town.
Despite differences
in ideology with their liberal coalition partners, Bakker’s
socialists seem content with the measures that are being taken.
“Drastic measures are now being carried out. We are very happy with
the revolutionary hotel stop as of 2017. But the neo-liberal policy
of stimulating more tourism has been going on for a very long time. I
don’t know if we can ever repair the damage that has been done,”
said Bakker.
The Labor Party, or
PvdA, the biggest opposition party in the city council, thinks that
the city needs to ease the flow of tourists to the city center. But
in the previous coalition in the city council, they promoted tourism
and pushed investments into promotions of the city as a tourist
destination – something the socialists are keen to point out. “Even
the mayor was flying everywhere to promote the city as a tourist
destination,” said Bakker.
But the PvdA points
out that was at a time when the city needed more visitors. “It’s
unfair though to put the blame on us,” said Marjolein Moorman, a
city council member for the PvdA. “This policy was created during
the economic crisis, a period when hotels were empty and the city’s
economy needed to be developed. Even the [socialists] was supporting
this policy back then.”
Moorman, indeed,
lobs the criticism right back at those who are now in power. “The
current coalition is reacting way too slow … to the problems,”
she said. “The measures are just a drop in the ocean. They need to
make real choices and be courageous.”
The only ones who
aren’t complaining are the tourists themselves. “If I were a
resident, I might not enjoy the busy streets that much,” said
Kyriaki Zouli who was visiting from Greece. “But as a tourist, I
don’t mind.”
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