Inspired by Bali’s recent campaign that educated tourists on acceptable behaviour, Amsterdam has chosen to send a similar message to dissuade rambunctious visitors from choosing their city as their holiday destination.
The crepe-spinning, street-yodelling, pipe-smoking locals have had it up to here with the constant influx of naughty tourists in their communities.
Amsterdam has built a global reputation for being relaxed and open-minded when it comes to legal marijuana smoking, sex work and giant beers.
Unfortunately, and unsurprisingly, the visitors that are drawn to features like this aren’t always on their most sensible behaviour, often causing havoc on their cobblestoned streets.
In light of this party fatigue, this month, The Netherlands has launched a campaign called “Stay Away”, which is, mind the pun, pretty blunt.
The campaign is to deter ratbag visitors from coming along and taking Amsterdam’s loose laws around drugs and sex work to unsavoury limits.
New rules will be introduced in mid-May, including a ban on smoking marijuana in the street, restrictions on booze sales and earlier closing times for bars and sex-work establishments. Day drinking, smoking and sexing, anyone?
And to stop the tirade of unruly bachelor and bachelorette parties stumbling recklessly along their quaint canals, they have introduced tighter laws around Airbnbs.
These rules are in the desperate hope that nuisance tourists will stop ruining Amsterdam for everyone else and to increase the likelihood that more sensible tourists will consider it as their holiday destination.
The announcement of the “Stay Away” campaign has delighted most locals, as well as those who love the historically rich and aesthetically pleasing European city, however, others have been flabbergasted that a city could be so bold as to pitch a tourism campaign asking people not to come.
Whether you like the new rules or not, it’s time for the Amsterdam locals to shine their clogs because they are still set to welcome 18 million tourists this year alone.
