Most Dutch voters are against the plan to remove the I Amsterdam letters from the Dutch capital, according to a survey by Maurice de Hond. 69 percent of all Dutch voters and 66 percent of Amsterdam voters find getting rid of the letters, located on Museumplein and at Schiphol among others, a bad idea.
tourism
Oct 10 '18 16:10
The famous I Amsterdam letters on the Museumplein have to go, according to a motion filed by the GroenLinks faction in Amsterdam. The slogan has become a symbol for mass tourism, the party finds. The motion seems to have support from the D66, PvdA and SP - a majority in the city council, Het Parool reports.
With the motion, GroenLinks asked the office of mayor and aldermen to remove the I Amsterdam letters from the whole city and to stop all city marketing activities under the slogan of I Amsterdam.
Sep 24 '18 11:49
Authorities in the picturesque village of Giethoorn are trying to track down reports of fake police officers luring and robbing Chinese tourists. Police say they are looking to speak with any victims and witnesses of similar robberies.
Police say they are trying to track down two or three light complected young men with dark hair. The suspects have used a dark colored four-door sedan, not a hatchback, in the robberies. Each robbery took place in the afternoon, but police did not specify the dates of the crimes.
Aug 28 '18 10:40
Most of the Eindhoven residents who rent out their homes through Airbnb do not pay tourist tax, according to ANG, a specialized company hired to inspect Airbnb accommodation in the Noord-Brabant city. This means that the city treasury is missing out on a large sum of income, NOS reports.
Over the past month ANG contacted more than a hundred Airbnb landlords and inspected 38 Airbnb locations. "Only 30 to 40 addresses paid the sum of 3.50 euros per person per night", the company said.
Aug 15 '18 13:30
The municipality of Amsterdam is preparing experiments with three boat-related measures to see if they can reduce inconvenience for residents and business owners in the crowded city center. The first is a pleasure boat ban on the Oudezijds Voorburgwal in the afternoon and evening, AT5 reports.
Aug 13 '18 10:00
An increasing number of prostitutes working in Amsterdam's Red Light District are struggling with debts, that can range from 10 thousand euros to 30 thousand euros, newspaper Trouw reports based on its own research.
No total overview is available, but the debt problem is large, three Christian organizations that support prostitutes in the Red Light District - the Salvation Army, Scharlaken Koord and Bright Fame - confirmed to the newspaper.
Aug 9 '18 08:38
An illegal hotel was closed down for three months in Amsterdam's West-Indischebuurt earlier this week. The hotel was discovered during extra checks the city is doing this week and next, Het Parool reports.
The illegal hotel was closed due to fire hazards, according to the newspaper. The apartment offered six rooms to rent under names like the Harry Potter Room and the Van Gogh room. Eleven people were staying in the apartment. The illegal hotel was boarded up and the owner and tenant of the apartment were each fined 20,500 euros.
Aug 7 '18 12:00
Amsterdam is implementing cleaning breaks in the Red Light District during busy nights. Parts of the street will be temporarily be closed to the public, so that the mess left by visitors can be cleaned up. This is one of the measures new mayor Femke Halsema is taking to quickly solve problems in the overcrowded Amsterdam city center, following damning reports by the city's ombudsman, Het Parool reports.
Aug 1 '18 10:20
A virtual reality installation at Amsterdam Central Station is intended to lure tourists to attractions outside the Dutch capital and thereby spread tourism throughout the country. The Netherlands is more than just Amsterdam, is the message, Het Parool reports.
Jul 26 '18 15:40
Amsterdam residents are more concerned about the housing shortage in the city than the crowds of tourists or crime, according to a bi-annual survey the municipality did among 2,378 residents, Het Parool reports.
57 percent of respondents called the housing shortage their main concern. This is especially a worry for young people between 16 and 29 years old. 38 percent are worried about tourism, and 31 percent about crime.
About half of the residents think that Amsterdam is heading in the right direction. 39 percent disagree.
Jun 11 '18 11:10
The new Zaanstad city council wants to take advantage of Amsterdam's popularity among tourists and the measures the Dutch capital is taking to spread out the crowds of visitors, according to the Zaandstad coalition agreement presented on Sunday, AT5 reports.
May 31 '18 11:10
Amsterdam launched a campaign to address misbehaving tourists on their behavior. The campaign Enjoy & Respect is specifically aimed at male visitors between the ages at 18 and 34. It makes clear that behavior like public urination is not only unacceptable, but will also cost you money, Het Parool reports.
May 16 '18 16:20
The new Amsterdam college of mayor and aldermen will also be tough on tourism. The coalition negotiations between GroenLinks, D66, PvdA and SP are still ongoing, but the parties reached an agreement on their tourism plans, they announced on Wednesday morning, Het Parool reports.
May 7 '18 16:20
Amsterdam's ban on new tourist stores and beer bikes in Amsterdam city center, is resulting in more and more tourists flocking to Amsterdam West. The district therefore plans to implement similar measures, to keep the area livable for its residents, Het Parool reports.
Amsterdam West wants to ban new bars and cafes, new tourist shops and beer bikes.
Apr 4 '18 08:23
The number of tourists that stayed in accommodation in the Netherlands last year increased by nearly 9 percent to 42 million. That is the strongest growth since 2006, according to figures Statistics Netherlands released on Wednesday.
Statistics Netherlands' figures do not include overnight stays in accommodations with fewer than five rooms, which means that most tourists booking accommodation through online platforms like Airbnb are not included in these figures.
Apr 2 '18 15:10
The city of Amsterdam implemented stricter rules on guided tours through the Red Light District on April 1st. These rules are intended to reduce crowds in the busy area, and to help protect sex workers' privacy.
Mar 29 '18 08:40
Some 850 foreign tourists will visit the Netherlands this long Easter weekend, 100 thousand fewer than last year, national tourism office NBTC Holland Marketing expects. Together these foreign visitors will spend around 250 million euros over the coming days, AD reports.
Most foreign visitors come from Germany and Belgium. For them their neighbor the Netherlands is a popular destination, particularly for short holidays, according to the tourism office.
Mar 23 '18 12:20
The municipality of Amsterdam is taking extra measures to manage the crowds of tourists expected to visit the city over Easter weekend. Last Easter weekend 20 to 25 percent more tourists visited the Dutch capital than the year before, Het Parool reports.
Extra trams will run during Easter weekend, from March 30th to April 2nd. Lines 1, 2, 5, 5 and 9 will run on an extended timetable. The city will advice visitors with cars to park on a site on the outskirts of the city, and to use public transit from there.
Mar 13 '18 13:40
Dutch tourists are again vacationing in countries like Turkey and Egypt after avoiding these countries due to terrorist attacks, AD reports based on figures from travel agencies sector organization ANVR.
Visits to Turkey from the Netherlands dropped to nearly zero following an attempted coup and several terrorist attacks. But in January the number of bookings to the country rose by 90 percent.
Mar 8 '18 10:15
The Netherlands' major attractions are increasingly being flooded by international tourists, according to Dutch tourism office NBTC. The hotspots suffer under traffic jams, crowds and problems for residents. "The necessary distribution of tourists is stagnating", NBTC CEO Jos Vranken said to the Telegraaf.
Last year the Netherlands had 17.6 million foreign visitors, an 11 percent increase compared to the year before. This year NBTC expects more than 18.5 million international visitors, increasing to over 20 million by 2020.
Mar 7 '18 08:20
The measures the Amsterdam municipality is taking against crowds in the city center are not reducing problems for residents, Amsterdam Ombudsman Arre Zuurmond said in a new report. The inner city is "a jungle at night, in which survival of the fittest applies and in which the government is intolerably absent", the Ombudsman said, Het Parool reports.
Mar 2 '18 14:10
Metje Blaak, former sex worker and a candidate for 50Plus in the Amsterdam municipal elections, wants to charge an entry fee of five euros for the Red Light District. According to her, this is an effective way to reduce crowds in the area and to make sure that sex workers aren't driven away, the Telegraaf reports.
Feb 5 '18 16:10
Rotterdam received a record number of tourists last year, the city announced based on preliminary figures on Monday. Over 1.1 million people spent over 1.8 million nights in hotels in the city, an increase of 10 percent compared to 2016, NOS reports.
Jan 31 '18 14:20
Amsterdam is implementing stricter rules for guided tours through the Red Light District from April, the city announced. The new rules, which are intended to reduce crowds in the busy area and to protect the privacy of sex workers, include a ban on tour groups larger than 20 people, and not allowing photographs to be taken of sex workers.
"The number of organized tours has increased considerably in recent years. At the busiest moments, such as between 11 and 12 in the morning, 27 groups visit the Oudekerksplein in an hour", the city of Amsterdam said in a statement.
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