Across Europe, overtourism is getting out of hand. Over the last few weeks, Spain removed 53,000 ‘illegal’ holiday rentals from booking websites, and Venice decided to bring back its entrance fee for 2026. But it’s not just the south of the continent that’s struggling.
Amsterdam has spent the past couple of years trying to reduce its visitor numbers and change the type of tourists visiting the city – but after years of little change, a group of locals have decided to take legal action against the city they love. But how did we get here?
Amsterdam tells partygoers to ‘stay away’
Plenty flock to the city every year to visit its museums and enjoy its architecture, but they’re not the problem – it’s the millions that come over to partake in the city’s renowned cannabis culture, disrespect sex workers in the Red Light District and generally cause a nuisance that locals are sick of.
A couple of years ago, the city launched an entire campaign targeted at rowdy young people, which asked them to simply ‘stay away’. Since then, smoking weed in public has been banned from the Red Light District, and then came the online quizzes, designed to ‘debunk associations that party tourists have about letting loose in Amsterdam’. That’s only some of the measures the government has taken to improve quality of life for locals.
Nevertheless, the parties continued, and restrictions on visitor numbers were ignored. At least, that’s what campaign group Amsterdam Heeft een Keuze – Amsterdam Has A Choice – is claiming.
The city has not done enough to curb overtourism, campaigners say
The campaign group says that the City of Amsterdam has failed to limit overnight stays for leisure to 20 million per year, and is therefore in breach of a 2021 bylaw. This bylaw declared that should 18 million overnight visitors book a trip, it’s the council’s job to step in and ensure that the 20 million goal is not met or exceeded.
Despite the city taking measures to curb overnight stays, such as banning the construction of new hotels, local sources reported that more than 22.9 million overnight stays had been made last year.
Amsterdam Has A Choice raised €50,000 to help fund their lawsuit. It recognises that efforts have been made by the city to curb overtourism, but maintains that not enough is being done. They want the ‘vague terms’ in the bylaw to be replaced with clear, concrete language, which makes the 20 million cap explicit.
The group also believes that the tourist tax should be increased, and that ‘Amsterdam could use the significant additional revenue from the increased tourist tax to buy properties to help with the housing shortage or to rid the city of the street litter created in part by mass tourism’.
The group is not explicitly anti-tourist, but it does view mass tourism as a problem for local communities, saying ‘when shops for residents disappear from entire parts of the city and one in five Amsterdammers avoid the most beautiful city centre in the world, something is seriously wrong’.
Amsterdam City Council has yet to respond, but this could result in even further restrictions being placed on tourists looking to visit in the coming years. If you’re still keen to see the city (without causing chaos for locals), we’ve got a guide on how to be a better tourist next time you travel.
How to avoid overtourism
Not everywhere wants tourists to stay away. In fact, loads of places actively want you to visit, and Europe is full of underrated gems that could be perfect for your next getaway.
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