Sorry tourists, Amsterdam doesn't want you anymoreโ๐๐ป (CNN) โ Famous for its
tolerance as much as its narrow houses and broad canals, Amsterdam is undergoing
a radical change of attitude when it comes to the millions of tourists that
flock to see it each year. Tolerance, it seems, has reached its limits in the
Dutch capital, which is now actively urging visitors to head elsewhere as
frustrated locals complain of feeling besieged by visitors using the city's
bicycle-thronged streets as a travel playground. "The pressure is very high,"
says Ellen van Loon, a partner at Dutch architectural firm OMA who is involved
in adapting the city for the future. "We don't want to turn into a Venice. The
problem we are currently facing is that Amsterdam is so loved by tourists, we
just have so many coming to the city." While Van Loon acknowledges the positive
aspects of tourism, which earns the Dutch economy around 82 billion euros ($91.5
billion) a year, like many locals she's worried that soaring visitor numbers are
destroying the soul of this vibrant cosmopolitan city. Like Venice and other
destinations across Europe, Amsterdam has become a byword for overtourism -- a
phenomenon closely linked to the rise in cheaper air travel that has seen
visitors flood certain places, often spoiling the very spot they came to enjoy.
While some cities are still formulating ways to cope, Amsterdam -- where a
decade-long surge in visitor numbers is forecast to continue, rising from 18
million in 2018 to 42 million in 2030, or more than 50 times the current
population -- has simply decided it's had enough. CNN Travel's Richard Quest
meets Reinier Sijpkens on board his musical boat. Netherlands tourist officials
recently took the bold decision to stop advertising the country as a tourist
destination. Their "Perspective 2030โณ report, published earlier this year,
stated that the focus will now be on "destination management" rather than
"destination promotion." The document also outlines the country's future
strategy, acknowledging that Amsterdam's livability will be severely impacted by
"visitor overload" if action isn't taken. Solutions listed include working to
dissuade groups of "nuisance" visitors by either limiting or completely shutting
down "accommodation and entertainment products" aimed at them, as well as
spreading visitors to other parts of the Netherlands. Some of these measures
have already come into play. Last year, the famous "I amsterdam" sign was
removed from outside the Rijksmuseum, the city's main art gallery, at the
request of the city of Amsterdam, as it was "drawing too big of a crowd to an
already limited space. Measures have also been taken to discourage travelers
from visiting some of Amsterdam's seedier tourist hotspots. Earlier this year,
the city government announced it will end tours of the Red Light District in
central Amsterdam, citing concerns that sex workers are being treated as a
tourist attraction. One of Amsterdam's most famous residents, Anne died in a
concentration camp in 1945 at the age of 15. "We pride ourselves on being a city
which is tolerant. A city where people can be themselves, which is true," says
museum director Ronald Leopold, one of the guardians of Anne's diary and legacy.
"But we also have these dark pages, and these are probably the darkest."
According to Leopald, around half of the 1.3 million people who visit the Anne
Frank House each year are under the age of 30. "I think it's increasingly
important to learn about what happened here during World War II and the
Holocaust," he adds. Like many other locals, architect Van Loon fears that
Amsterdam, which came in 23rd place on Euromonitor International's report on the
Top 100 City Destinations in 2018, is dangerously close to losing its unique
allure forever. "The reason tourists come here is because there's something in
the character of Amsterdam they love," she explains. "But at a certain point,
when the amount of tourists is increasing and increasing, they actually kill
what they loved in the first place."
