Young Brits told to stay away from Amsterdam in targeted ad campaign
The city council of Amsterdam has launched a digital campaign to discourage rowdy British sex and drug tourists from visiting the city.
The initiative aims to clean up Amsterdam’s reputation as Europe’s most liberal party capital and targets men aged 18 to 35 in the UK.
The online ads will be triggered when people in Britain search for terms like “stag party,” “cheap hotel,” or “pub crawl Amsterdam,” and highlight the risks associated with excessive drug and alcohol use.
The message is clear: a long weekend in Amsterdam could result in inescapable convictions.
Over tourism – ‘feels like we’re living zoo’
While some argue that the campaign is discriminatory and based on unfair stereotypes, the city is under pressure due to over-tourism, which is testing locals’ tolerance.
The council has already introduced more management measures than other large European cities to ensure visitors are welcome, but not if they misbehave and cause a nuisance.
Amsterdam sees around 20 million visitors every year, making it one of the world’s most visited cities.
But over tourism has seen billboards in the red light districts with the words: “We Live Here.”
The council is in the process of moving the famous neon-lit windows, where sex workers parade for trade, out of the residential heart of the capital to a new “erotic zone.
The sex trade has seen the introduction of more stringent operating rules, but whispers of an entire ban have faded for now.
Brothels and bars will now start closing earlier and a ban on smoking cannabis on the streets in and around the Red Light District comes into force in May.
Amsterdam is attempting to make the industry less seedy, more sustainable, and the city, more liveable.
But a BBC report said, many of the locals had said it’s not the young men visiting that are the problem, but instead the number of visitors that come.
“It feels like we’re living in Disneyland or a zoo,” the Visser family told the BBC.
The reaction online to the anti-tourism campaign has drawn scepticism., with one social media user remaking that it was a “mystery why 18-35 [year olds] would be attracted to a city with legalised drug cafes and brothels”.
And one woman wrote: “They want to make money with families and museums but they know it’s weed and red light that keep the city running.”
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