Amsterdam moves to ban cruise liners as city targets mass tourism

AMSTERDAM —Amsterdam took a primary step towards banning massive cruise liners underneath broader plans to scale back mass tourism and air pollution, officers stated on Friday.

Once applied, the measures adopted by the town council would carry the Dutch capital into line with different high-profile European cities, together with Barcelona, Dubrovnik and Venice, which have already lower cruise liner numbers or are contemplating doing so.

The council accredited the proposed ban on Thursday. “The motivation … was to reduce the number of tourists, but also for environmental reasons,” metropolis spokesman Wouter Moll stated.

Amsterdam’s govt department must work out particulars and it’s unclear when the measures can be applied, stated Dick de Graaff, managing director of Passenger Terminal Amsterdam. It expects to host 114 sea cruise liners in 2023 with a complete of practically 300,000 passengers.

“We have taken note of the council’s call that they do not see any room for sea cruises in the city of the future at the current location,” de Graaff stated.

“There is certainly no immediate ban on ships – let alone an immediate closure of the terminal.”

The metropolis has been actively attempting to restrict vacationer numbers, which run into the hundreds of thousands per 12 months, primarily by discouraging intercourse and drug-related tourism to the crimson mild district.

Amsterdam resident Peter van Zaanen, 68, believes a cruise ship ban within the metropolis is inevitable in some unspecified time in the future. “We’re just overcrowded by tourists, and it’s not a thing that you’d like in the city that you live in,” he stated. —Reuters

Source: www.gmanetwork.com