Amsterdam to limit tourism to 20 million overnight stays per year

The Amsterdam city council adopted a regulation that limits tourism in the Dutch capital to 20 million tourist overnight stays per year. The municipality will "intervene" if that limit is surpassed, AT5 reports.

The 'Tourism in Balance' regulation does not specify what measures the municipality will take if the number of tourist overnight stays exceeds 20 million per year. But tried and trusted measures like limiting Airbnb, increasing tourist tax, or making the Red Light District less attractive with limits on alcohol sales are expected.

The regulation also states that the city will intervene if the number of tourist stays falls below 10 million. That is logical, Renier van Dantzig, D66 leader in Amsterdam, said to the broadcaster. "Such a lower limit is quite important because everyone now sees that there are far too few tourists in Amsterdam. Corona of course wreaked havoc. That means empty hotels, but also that our cultural institutions are having a hard time," he said.

"So first we have to make sure that we get the tourists who really come for the beautiful city, back to Amsterdam. But we must not let it get out of hand. So if we get too close to the upper limit, we have to take measures to prevent that," Van Dantzig said.

This regulation was based on a citizens initiative, that collected 30 thousand signatures. "Historic that we have succeeded in adopting a regulation from the people of Amsterdam. The strength of this regulation is that we agreed together how many tourists we actually think are good for Amsterdam. Both the minimum and the maximum level."