Before the pandemic, city leaders had already put in place a number of measures to try to mitigate the problems stemming from tourism, including a ban on guided tours of the Red Light District; a ban on new hotels in the city center; an increase in the tourist tax; and a ban on new shops that cater to tourists. As early as 2014, Amsterdam stopped promoting itself as a destination in new markets overseas. Instead, the city’s marketing organization worked to guide and manage all of the visitors who showed up in the city.
Support for the prostitutes and low store homeowners was echoed in a number of interviews with Amsterdam residents, together with Roy Van Kempen, a 31-year-old advertising and marketing supervisor who has lived in Amsterdam since 2008.
“Paris has the Eiffel Tower, and we have the Red Light District and this idea that everything is possible in Amsterdam. And I would like to keep it like this, actually,” he stated.
But Irina, Mr. Helms, Mr. Van Kempen and half a dozen different Amsterdammers interviewed agreed that town heart has a significant drawback: A tourism “monoculture” has taken root, and residents are being pushed out. Businesses and companies that used to cater to locals — high-quality bakeries, butcher outlets, and the like — have been changed by trinket outlets, ice-cream parlors and “Nutella shops,” which serve takeaway waffles and different treats smeared within the hazelnut unfold, primarily to vacationers. Meanwhile, rising housing costs — due, partly, to the rise of Airbnb and different trip rental platforms — have made town heart unaffordable for a lot of locals.
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