Amsterdam is popular with city travelers - and suffers from the escalating mass tourism. To control the rush, the city is increasingly coming through.
Now she has announced that as of January 1, 2020 group tours through the red light district De Wallen are prohibited. From April 1, 2019, all tours are prohibited after 7 pm. The guides along the windows were not respectful to the prostitutes and caused a lot of hectic, it was said by the city administration.
Also, regulations that have already been adopted, bring restrictions for city tourists with it - here's an overview:
- Tour guides need a special permit: Visitors should pay close attention to who they book a tour with. Because leaders need in the future a special permit to carry out tours. In addition, there is an additional charge for city tours, similar to a tourist tax. Free tours will be completely banned in this case.
- Levy for cruise passengers : Who wants to go ashore as a passenger of a cruise ship in Amsterdam, has to pay an extra tax since 1 January 2019. This will cost eight euros per day per person. Shipping companies meanwhile transfer the fee to the customer. Some providers are reportedly completely re-routing their ships because of the tax, say to Rotterdam.
- If you misbehave , you have to pay: Tourists are - as well as locals - asked to pay when they drink alcohol on the streets. Also throwing garbage on the streets, loud bawling or wild peeing is expensive. Ordnungshüter have conveniently directly card readers with it in order to be able to cash.
- Visitors are limited: When it gets very crowded on the streets of the popular red light district, the streets are sometimes closed . The city measures the number of visitors in the district.
- No new tourist shops: Since 2017, the city has stopped opening more shops for tourists. These include bicycle rental companies, ticket shops and visitor attractions. Even new fast-food shops or ice cream parlors have a hard time.