Peter Dejong/AP
Amsterdam’s native authorities is cracking down on native over-tourism by placing a ban on new motels, it stated Wednesday.
New motels can solely be constructed if one other closes down, and the town is urging builders to decide on a web site exterior of the town heart.
If a brand new resort is constructed instead of an outdated one, it should be extra fashionable or extra sustainable. Twenty-six motels which have already been issued permits is not going to be affected by the ban, the town stated.
The transfer was triggered by Amsterdam’s “Tourism in steadiness” coverage, which was created in 2021 after a public initiative by which 30,000 residents referred to as for extra management of the tourism business.
Below “tourism in steadiness,” goals to restrict in a single day stays in motels by vacationers to twenty million a 12 months. In 2023 vacationers spent about 20.7 million nights in Amsterdam, a quantity that does not embrace trip leases, mattress and breakfast stays or cruise journeys. Which means “the municipal govt is obliged to take motion,” the town says.
Amsterdam additionally has been making an attempt to curb different behaviors by vacationers, together with banning hashish smoking in sure components of the town, closing some golf equipment and bars earlier, inserting new limits on canal cruises and changing some motels into houses or places of work.