KLM to guide tourists away from crowded Amsterdam Centrum with new gadget

From next week KLM will be diverting tourists away from the busiest places in Amsterdam with a new gadget called the Care Tag - a talking luggage tag containing tips about the Dutch capital. The Care Tag contains over 300 tips about the Dutch capital, triggered by its GPS location. If a visitor finds himself in a notoriously crowded spot, the Care Tag will advice him about a less busy place to visit, Het Parool reports.

For example, if a visitor is on Kalverstraat, the tag will say: "This is the most touristy street there is. We recommend that you quickly go somewhere else and discover the real Amsterdam." On the Leidseplein visitors are advised to take a look at the Beukenplein or the Noordermarkt. At the Stedelijk Museum, a visit to a gallery is recommended. And at the flower market, visitors are advised to find souvenirs on Utrechtsestraat.

"We did this deliberately, in consultation with the municipality of Amsterdam", Frank Houben of KLM said to the newspaper. "There are a number of places in the city where tourists always end up, making it overcrowded. With the Care Tag we want to tell them they can also go somewhere else."

After a successful trial run in September, KLM will be offering thousands of free Care Tags from next week to passengers traveling from Great Britain, China, Russia, Brazil and Germany to Amsterdam in 2018.

The tag speaks in English, German, Portuguese, Russian and Chinese. It also contains other useful tips, like the taxi fair from Schiphol to Amsterdam city center, warning tourists to keep an eye on their personal belongings in pickpocket zones, and warning visitors to watch out for cyclists on busy streets. The tips were recorded by KLM's own flight attendants.