- By Anna Holligan
- BBC News, Amsterdam
2 hours ago
Image source, Getty Images
Amsterdam has warned rampaging British sex and drug tourists to ‘stay away’.
A digital discouragement campaign targeting men aged 18-35 in the UK is being pushed ahead by Dutch City Council.
The initiative is part of an effort to erase Amsterdam’s offensive reputation as Europe’s most liberal party capital.
The online ad, which highlights the risks associated with over-consumption of drugs and alcohol, is triggered when people in the UK tap on terms such as ‘bachelorette party’, ‘cheap hotel’ or ‘Amsterdam pub crawl’.
The message is uncompromising – a long weekend in Amsterdam can evoke the wrong memories, the escapism you crave in the famed party capital could lead to inescapable beliefs.
Brits can find return flights to Amsterdam for £50 (€57; $62).
UK-based travel agencies also offer bachelorette weekends in Amsterdam, including canal cruises with unlimited booze, ‘steak and strip’ nights and pub crawls in the Red Light District.
For years people have complained about drunk Brits urinating in public, throwing up in sewers, stripping and getting into drunken fights.
This is not a new phenomenon. Almost a decade ago, Amsterdam’s then-mayor invited his London counterpart Boris Johnson, who had described the city as “shabby”, to see for himself what Brits were up to.
“They don’t wear coats when they slalom through the red light district…they sing ‘You’ll never walk alone.’ They are disguised as rabbits or priests and sometimes not dressed at all. I would like to invite him to experience it,” said Eberhard van der Laan at the time.
Critics argue that the targeted advertising campaigns are discriminatory and based on unfair stereotypes.
In the Netherlands, coffeeshops are allowed to sell cannabis as long as they meet certain strict conditions, e.g. B. Not serving or selling alcoholic beverages to minors.
“They may come for the weed, but they stay for Van Gogh,” Joachim Helms, owner of the Greenhouse coffee shop, told me.
He nodded to a woman in her sixties, noting that his clientele came from all social and economic classes, arguing that attempts to exclude some on the basis of age and gender went against the principles of freedom, tolerance and equality that Amsterdam is proud of.
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Joachim Helm’s cafe has been frequented by many stars, including Miley Cyrus, Snoop Dogg, Rihanna and Justin Bieber
But the narrow, cobbled, bike-laden streets and canals are under pressure.
Amsterdam is one of the most visited cities in the world. Around 20 million visitors – including a million Britons – visit the city, which has around 883,000 inhabitants, every year.
But excessive tourism is testing the tolerance of the locals and forcing the council to act.
Larger-than-life billboards in the red-light district feature photos of local residents, with words reminding visitors, “We live here.”
The council is in the process of moving the famous neon-lit windows, showing sex workers parading for the trade, out of the capital’s residential neighborhood and into a new “erotic zone”.
Rumors of a total ban on the sex trade have died down for now. Instead, stricter operating regulations are introduced.
From this weekend brothels and bars have earlier closing times and in May a ban on smoking cannabis on the streets in and around the red light district comes into effect.
There is still debate over whether tourists should be banned from the Dutch capital’s cannabis cafes.
Amsterdam’s mission is to make industry less run down, more sustainable and the city more livable.
But many locals who live in the tall, narrow townhouses that line the 17th-century canal rings tell me it’s not the young men that are the problem, it’s sheer numbers.
“It feels like we’re living in Disneyland or a zoo,” the Visser family told me.
Deputy Mayor Sofyan Mbarki said Amsterdam is already taking more management measures than other major cities in Europe.
“Visitors will still be welcome, but not if they misbehave and cause harassment,” he added.
People have reacted to the anti-tourism campaign on social media, with one man joking that it “looks more like a commercial to me” and another noting it’s a “mystery why 18-35 [year olds] would be drawn to a city with legalized drug cafes and brothels”.
Others seem skeptical of the campaign, with one woman writing, “They want to make money off families and museums, but they know it’s weed and red lights that keep the city running.”