The residents of Amsterdam, increasingly upset by what they see as the city’s inability to manage the sheer volume of tourists, have initiated legal proceedings against the City Council. Their grievance? Allowing overnight tourist stays to exceed the agreed-upon threshold of 20 million annually.
“Amsterdam has a choice”, a citizens’ initiative funded by local contributions totaling 50,000 euros and supported by a dozen neighborhood associations, contends that the relentless influx of tourists is turning the Dutch capital into something akin to a “theme park,” thereby undermining its distinctive spirit and displacing its inhabitants.
A Broken Promise
The roots of this conflict can be traced to 2020, when the pandemic offered a temporary reprieve from the pressures of tourism. Spurred by this opportunity, residents launched a petition to cap overnight stays, quickly amassing 30,000 signatures—enough to potentially trigger a referendum. The City Council, hesitant to call for a vote, engaged in negotiations with residents, eventually leading to a 2021 regulation that set a limit of 20 million annual tourist overnight stays. However, this limit was surpassed in 2023, with 22.9 million hotel nights tallied. Projections suggest this number could potentially rise to between 24 and 28 million by 2027. Many residents are now accusing local government of failing to enforce their own rules against excessive tourism, or of not taking adequate steps to prevent this overage from happening.
A City Under Pressure
For quite a few years, Amsterdammers have publicly expressed worry regarding the impact of excessive tourism, especially in the historical heart of the city and De Wallen, also known as the Red Light District. Shops that historically served the local community have slowly but surely been replaced with stores selling souvenirs, and it’s become common to see both private residences and even public buildings converted into hotels or other types of tourist accommodation.
Streets, often congested with tourists lining up to see popular attractions that became famous on social media, have become more challenging for locals to easily navigate, causing unwanted disruptions to their daily lives.
As a response, the City Council put in place a range of measures, such as introducing what is generally considered the highest tourist tax in Europe, at 12.5%. Other measures included putting a stop to new hotel construction, cutting river and sea cruises in half, and issuing fines for certain types of public behavior, like smoking marijuana or consuming alcohol in the historical center. Campaigns have also been launched targeting tourist groups known for disruptive behavior, such as bachelor parties and pub crawls. But, residents assert that these efforts don’t go far enough, mainly because they don’t address the main underlying problem: simply put, there are just too many tourists.
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Demands for Stronger Action
The “Amsterdam has a choice” initiative is really pushing for even stricter steps, which could include further tourist tax increases, along with limits on tourists visiting coffeeshops, which is already a policy other cities in the Netherlands are currently using. Still, they want to make clear that what they see as most urgent is enforcing the existing 20-million overnight stay limit. The lawsuit, which is now formally before the courts, aims to have the City Council answer for what they see as a failure to uphold their own city rules. A hearing that is currently scheduled for next year will decide if the initiative has enough local support to move forward. As a representative of the group said, “We are pretty relaxed about this since we know we have a lot of support.”
A Fight for Amsterdam’s Identity
From the perspective of residents, this lawsuit is truly a last resort, after years of writing petitions, putting pressure on through the media, and attempting to have conversations with the authorities. Their argument is that, while individual citizens are forced to pay fines for not following rules, their local government seemingly faces zero repercussions for their mistakes. “That is just not how any legal system can function,” as residents put it. Beyond just worrying about quality-of-life issues, this case is really about trying to save what is left of Amsterdam’s unique identity, which many locals worry is being overshadowed by noise from rolling suitcases, group walking tours, and a growing number of short-term rentals that are fueled by sites and services like Airbnb.
It is not that Amsterdam is against tourism in principle, but local residents are simply asking for a healthy balance. Locals point to the fact that one in five residents now avoids the historical center of the city—which is widely known as one of the most beautiful urban environments in the world—because it hardly feels like home anymore. In their view, something is really wrong when that starts to happen. As this important court case moves forward, Amsterdammers are really hoping to be able to reclaim the special character of their city, and to help it regain its soul.