To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web
browser that
supports HTML5
video
Amsterdam has launched a campaign telling British lads to ‘stay away’.
Sex and drug tourists, typically aged 18 to 35, are now being discouraged from visiting the Dutch city as council bosses attempt to clean up its raunchy reputation.
A campaign video shows drunken men staggering in the street and getting apprehended by police.
It then offers up mathematical formulas to ram home how tourists will have ‘no future prosepects’ if they get ‘messy’.
‘Coming to Amsterdam for a messy night and getting trashed = €140 fine = criminal record = fewer prospects,’ the message states.
Another warns: ‘Coming to Amsterdam to take drugs and lose control = hospital trip = permanent health damage = worried family.
‘So coming to Amsterdam for a messy night? Stay away.’
The targeted ad clearly tells Brits to ‘stay away’
But the warnings haven’t worked on some viewers, who appear even more excited to visit the city, saying it ‘looks more like a commercial’.
The ads will apparently appear when people in Britain search terms such as stag party, cheap hotel or pub crawls in Amsterdam.
Brits have long had a reputation for causing trouble in the city, with locals complaining of tourists urinating in public, throwing up in canals and engaging in drunken brawls.
Boris Johnson was invited to Amsterdam 10 years ago when he was London mayor to see for himself what Brits got up to after he called the city sleazy.
British tourists have a reputation of causing trouble in the city (Picture: Alamy Stock Photo)
Boris Johnson was invited to the Dutch city to see what ‘the Brits get up to’ (Picture: Shutterstock / Olena Znak)
The then-mayor Eberhard van der Laan said: ‘They don’t wear a coat as they slalom through the red light district… they sing “You’ll never walk alone”.
‘They are dressed as rabbits or priests and sometimes they are not dressed at all. I’d love to invite him to witness it.’
But critics say the ads are based on unfair stereotypes, with some Dutch locals not as harsh on tourists pumping money into their economy.
The council is trying to rid the city of its ‘raunchy’ reputation (Picture: Shutterstock / Anna Belkina Spb)
Joachim Helms, owner of the Greenhouse coffee shop, told the BBC: ‘They might come for the weed but they stay for the Van Gogh.’
Around one million Brits visit the city, which has a population of approximately 883,000, every year.
But the council is trying to cut down on the 20 million tourists as locals ramp up their complaints.
Billboards displayed in the red light districts show photos of residents with the words: ‘We Live Here.’
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].
For more stories like this, check our news page.
‘It looks more like a commercial.’