Amsterdam revealed plans on Wednesday to rein in tourism, reflecting the dissatisfaction of many residents who feel the city’s historic center has been overrun.
The leading Green-Left and other parties negotiating a new municipal government after March elections vowed to return “Balance to the City”, in a document of that name seen by Reuters.
“The positive sides of tourism such as employment and city revenues are being more and more overshadowed by the negative consequences” including trash and noise pollution, the document said.
Changes the document outlines include curtailing “amusement transportation” such as multi-person “beer bikes”; cracking down on alcohol use in boats on the canals; further restricting AirBnB and other home rentals; and a large tax hike.
With a population of around 800,000, the city expects 18 million tourists in 2018, an increase of 20 percent from 2016 levels, according to Reuters.
Anti-tourist and anti-expatriate sentiment have been steadily on the rise in Amsterdam, as both are blamed in part for helping drive housing prices increasingly out of the reach of ordinary Dutch people.
The average apartment in Amsterdam cost 407,000 euros ($475,000) in 2017, an increase of around 12 percent from 2016 levels, according to national real estate association NVM.
