The Mayor of Amsterdam, Flemke Halsema, has put forward a proposal to impose a ban on tourists visiting cannabis cafes after the capital of the Netherlands witnessed years of antisocial behavior from tourists.
Halsema, an ecologist, proposed that only Dutch residents be allowed to visit 166 cannabis selling cafes so that tourists can focus on other tourism spots and travel to Amsterdam for the right reasons SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
“We would like them to come for its richness, its beauty and its cultural institution. The problem is: there are just too many of them. The drug tourists are the reason for an increase in demand for marijuana,” she said.
An Amsterdam-based local told Deutsche Welle that one day while he was resting on his bed, he saw someone who just sat down and puked into the window. According to him, tourists disrespect the fact that there are neighbourhoods and people who work and have everyday jobs and live there.
Previously, Mayor Halsema had discussed the matter and put the proposal forward in February 2020, even though, according to a commissioned report, one-third of tourists would stop visiting the country as a result.
“If they were to ban the tourists, 80 per cent of our customers would be gone. It’s totally a lie. They will never ever let that come to pass,” Eve McGuire, who works at a cannabis coffee shop, said for DW, revealing that the ban was unlikely to pass.
The Manager of Amsterdam’s Cannabis Museum, Gary Gallagher, agreed, also saying that the pandemic and lockdowns showcased how disadvantageous the lack of traffic could be for the coffee shops.
Moreover, Gallagher noted that although the coffee shops were closed during the lockdowns, the drug dealers could be seen at every street corner. According to him, Amsterdam will always have the reputation of a no-strings-attached destination.
Don Cedar, Lawyer and councillor, also said that Amsterdam’s culture must be improved as such a change would attract different types of tourists; thus, the city would become more livable for its residents.
For the first campaign of 2021, the capital has established a €100,000 fund in order to become a tourism spot where travellers would pay attention to visiting street art, the highest swing in Europe and other creative options that also tackle sustainability and an environment-friendly city.
Dennis Boutkan, the PvdA Labour party member, previously said that this goal of attracting more tourists complies with the city’s vision that “visitors are welcome but not at any price.”
