It has been accepted by every journalist and many residents that Amsterdam is full of tourists; TOO FULL! And like the Louvre in Paris, the center of Barcelona and all of Venice, Amsterdam is no fun anymore because there are just TOO MANY TOURISTS! Everyone says it. Het Parool won’t stop writing about it. It must be true!!
KLAGEN
NIET KLAGEN
The foreign press agrees: CNN’s The Worst Cities for Overtourism lists Amsterdam first! No points for guessing which European city is being ‘ruined’ by tourists! The Washington Post offered this advice: Looking to dodge Amsterdam’s crowds? There are three remarkable towns a short train ride away. Uh, maybe you want to go to Zwolle, but I don’t.
Yes. There are more total tourists, but there is also more space on the street than before. I have been living in the center of Amsterdam for more than 30 years. In terms of livability, getting around and store variety, it has never been this good. My street still has two hardware stores, despite Dutch people’s preferences to order everything on Bol.com, hurting the local businesses they complain are disappearing.
Despite larger numbers of tourists, most of the city and all of the center is LESS full and more manageable than ever before. This is because of bigger sidewalks combined with many fewer cars. From 2016, through traffic was banned from the center city and 10.000 parking spaces were removed. That space plus whole streets were given over to pedestrians and bikes. The North South Metro line (M52) removes another 10.000 people per hour from the streets (and trams).
Amsterdam neighborhoods like the East, Bos en Lommer and the Bijlmer all have shops, restaurants and destinations. So does (gasp) the North! 30 years ago, I rarely went outside the center. Now I bike to a club past Sloterdijk, take the ferry to a trendy new restaurant in Noord, or see a show in Osdorp.
And what about Weesp, the formerly independent town that is now a part of Amsterdam? I don’t know. No one goes to Weesp.
Great Urban Planning Increased Capacity
Around 2018, the area around Centraal Station and towards the Dam reopened. A giant bike parking garage was built under the water, buses were moved to an elevated station in the back and cars were banished to a tunnel. Without buses, intersections, and cross traffic, the area can accommodate more capacity. It is more walkable, more bikeable and more calm. This complemented the Rode Loper and Oranje Loper street redesign projects, which replaced traffic lanes with wide sidewalks and beautiful urban design on the center’s most important streets. The Rokin now
has a promenade on the east side with outdoor seating and three wide sidewalks along the water (if you count the Oude Turfmarkt). Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal is a beautiful bike, tram and pedestrian paradise. Ferdinand Bolstraat traded car traffic and one tram track for wider sidewalks and better biking. Soon, pointing west, the Radhuisstraat and the Rozengracht will join them. All these improvements increase city capacity more than any increase in tourism.
Amsterdam’s official policy ranks the priorities for scarce public space. Pedestrians are officially most important, followed by bikes, public transportation, driving and parking in that order. Parking is intentionally valued lower than driving because at least the driver uses the car when they are driving. A former parking space will be strolled on by thousands of people every day.
We don’t have ‘overtourism.’ Our capacity for everyone, locals and visitors has gone up!
The Constant Dutch Complainers: Klagen, klagen, klagen…
The Dutch are straight shooters who tell you what they think. We call it ‘Dutch honesty.’ Others call it, ‘offering a mean opinion no one asked for.’ While an American might say, ‘You look great. Have you lost weight?’ A Dutch person could say, ‘You used to be so fat!’ This non-filtered thinking, combined with a nostalgia for days that weren’t as good as we remember, has led to the CDCs: The Constant Dutch Complainers.
Amsterdam is full of them. These are the people who remark every time their waiter doesn’t speak Dutch, forgetting their own children don’t work in cafes anymore either. And do we really long for the bad (Dutch) service of yesteryear, when customers were routinely ignored in bars, restaurants and cafes? The CDCs ring their bike bells at people who take one step into the street instead of effortlessly gliding around them on streets with few cars.
‘But Andrew,’ the CDCs say: ‘Look at the numbers. We had 10 million tourists in 2005 and 40% more in a decade.’ I nod. ‘In 2021 it was 19 million. And after COVID, in 2023, we hit 23 million visitors.’
If they were wearing glasses, they might take them off for effect. ‘When will it end?’
Yes, all that is true, but this is not the most important story. Tourism used to be confined to the three summer months, and our primitive infrastructure could not handle them. Now they come year round, and they don’t actually hinder anything. Even their beer bikes have been pushed out to Sloterdijk.
Three Cheers for Tourists
Tourists enjoy Amsterdam in a way that many CDCs no longer do. Amsterdammers should follow tourists to the excellent Amsterdam in Motion, the updated This is Holland and the new Minatuur Museum. There are three traveling exhibits at the Rijksmuseum this year. If you haven’t been to the Van Gogh Museum since the new wing opened (ten years ago), that’s on you.
Tourists do more than just love Amsterdam. They spend money and fund many of our jobs. Additionally, they pay €300 million in tourist taxes each year, enough to fund the entire Amsterdam education budget, including Weesp!
Their high standards also raise the quality of life in Amsterdam. They read reviews and seek out new experiences. My CDC friends can’t name a new restaurant that opened in the past six months, but tourists can. They are the reason we have so many great places to eat, and why so many are open on Monday and Tuesday. You want to go out to eat in a city without tourists? Try Almere. Eet smakeleijk!
Furthermore, CDCs somehow define their own foreign adventures as different from those who visit our city. Dutch people abroad are somehow sophisticated travelers, loved by locals, who never generate trash. Foreign tourists in Amsterdam, however, are buffoons who wait in stupid TikTok lines for friets.
One of those stereotypes must be wrong. Probably both.