The sun comes out in summer. The sky clears. Dutch people smile.
Then the tourists arrive.
They swarm. They don’t move. They block the bike lanes.
Dilara Uysal hates this part. She’s lived in the Jordaan, that postcard-perfect neighborhood, for two years. At twenty-six, she rings her bicycle bell a thousand times a day.
“They walk everywhere but they don’t move.”
She watches lines for museums grow longer. Local spots vanish. The post office? Closed. Now she has to cycle ten minutes just to send a letter. She loves travel. She understands why people come. But she worries they are visiting a cartoon.
I feel sad for them that they cannot see the real Amsterdam.
They follow TikTok trends. They chase a fabricated version of Dutch life. The city needs their money. It’s a dirty dependency. Rents spike. Cafés die. Uysal wants them here. Just not like this.
The Madness in the Canals
De Wallen. The Red Light District. It hosts 2.5 million people a year. It feels like Disneyland on bad acid.
Stan Paardekooper has lived there since 1992. He was there before the crowds. Back then, you could buy bread. You could talk to the butcher.
Now? Duck stores. Sex shops. Homogenous café menus.
There’s no community binding left. He goes to council meetings. He cares. One neighbor told him he doesn’t belong anymore. Paardekooper was furious.
I’ve gone to school here. I paid my taxes here. I want to stay.
Citizens started “Stop de gekte op the Wallen” (Stop the madness). They posted videos of trash-filled streets. Drunk people singing. Strippers posing. Sleepers on the pavement. They tried night watches. Business owners yelled at them. Said they lost money. So they stopped watching.
Guided tours are banned in the streets leading to the windows. Not just at the windows. In the streets. Paardekooper tells guides to stop. Some apologize. Some scream at him. Ask if he’s police.
Photographing sex workers? Banned. Smoking? Fine. Urinating? Fine. Drinking on the sidewalk? Fine.
It doesn’t matter. They do it anyway.
Moving the Red Light District? Politicians love that idea. Sex workers hate it. A remote location means vulnerability. Danger. De Wallen is UNESCO heritage. It’s history. You can’t just move history like furniture.
Limit the numbers? Yes. Stop the masses. Stop the treating it like a theme park.
Who Pays the Rent?
Banning tourists from coffee shops? Maastricht did it. Only residents allowed.
Uysal thinks it’s brilliant. Kills the weed smell. Changes the image. Owners worry about their bottom line. Plus, black market fears.
Amsterdam tried limits. In 2021. The city wanted to cap overnight stays at 20 million. Residents signed 30,000 names.
What did the city do? Raised taxes. Banned public marijuana smoking (100 EUR fine). Closed bars early. Restricted cruise ships. Told British teenagers to stay home.
Did it work?
No.
Amsterdam recorded 23.7 million stays in 2024. Up by 800,00. In a city of fewer than one million residents.
So the tax goes up. 20 percent by 2130.
The problem isn’t tourism. It’s balance.
Jacques Huppes gets this. He’s thirty-eight. He’s with “Amsterdam Heeft Een Keuze.” They sued the city.
The 20 million limit wasn’t a law. It was a memo.
The court battle continues. Cannabis groups and hotels are fighting alongside the municipality. It’s a legal mess.
Meanwhile, small businesses pack up.
Sjap Horwitz ran a tattoo shop on Haarlemmerdijk for 26 years. He moved in June. His friend there before him moved too. Rents went exponential.
The woodshop died. The 400-year-old tea shop shut down last year.
In its place? Franchises. Nutella shops. Souvenir stalls.
Horwitz blames real estate greed. Not the tourists. He wants people to enjoy the city. He just wants artisans back in the center. One souvenir shop is fine. One Nutella place is okay. Diversity. That’s the point.
A Fix or Just Another Tax?
The new council took power on June 10. Left-leaning. They promise liveability.
Their plan? Buy back buildings. Create a real estate fund. Turn central properties into homes or local businesses instead of investment flips.
They’re hiking that tourist tax to 20%.
Amsterdam already has high taxes. They fund city maintenance. Bhutan charges $100 a day. It keeps their tourism in check. Europe’s taxes don’t. They’re too low.
But the money helps. Tourists share the bill for trash, roads, police. Residents stop carrying the full load.
The Dutch government wants to close the cruise terminal. Less crowding. Day tourists cause havoc. The plan for an Erotic Center in South Amsterdam? Scrapped.
Instead? Small initiatives.
The city stopped promoting Amsterdam as a destination.
But the ban on coffee shop tourists? Still not there.
Amsterdam remains beautiful. Tourists make it vibrant.
Huppes sees the value. They bring energy. International flavor.
Just behave. Treat it like your own home.
Will they?
The line keeps growing.
