Amsterdam
residents take council to court over tourist numbers
May 26, 2025
https://www.dutchnews.nl/2025/05/amsterdam-residents-take-council-to-court-over-tourist-numbers/
A group of
residents from Amsterdam’s city centre are taking legal action against the
council for failing to comply with its own limits on tourist numbers, the
Parool reported on Monday.
The group,
who also organised a 2021 petition that attracted 30,000 signatures, say the
number of overnight stays has exceeded the 20 million threshold every year
since then, leaving them no option but to go to court.
Jasper van
Dijk, one of the organisers of the campaign group Amsterdam Heeft een Keuze,
said they had had enough. “We have had endless patience but the 20 million
limit is exceeded year after year,” he told the paper. “We have no option but
to take legal steps.”
In 2021 the
city council agreed, almost unanimously, that action would be required if
overnight stays exceeded 20 million. In 2023, the number reached 22.1 million.
Last year, the figure was expected to rise to 23 million, and forecasts suggest
25 million tourists will visit the capital in the coming years.
The
campaigners acknowledge that the council has introduced some measures,
including a stay away campaign, a ban on outdoor cannabis smoking in the red
light district, shorter café and bar opening hours, limits on river cruises,
and an increase in the tourist tax.
Another
option, Van Dijk said, would be to ban non-residents from the city’s cannabis
cafés, in line with the rules in the rest of the country.
Economic
affairs chief Sofyan Mbarki said he would meet the campaigners again but added
that it was up to the full council to decide what action to take. “There are
measures, such as the residency criteria, that the council has refused to bring
in,” Mbarki said in response to questions from councillors.
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