Amsterdam to slash cruise ship visits by half

[Catlover54]

2 hours ago, Menocchio said:

Well, it’s not just the wilding Brits and Germans in the red light district. I understand places like the Anne Frank House and the Rijksmuseum are becoming much harder to visit. Amsterdam has reached a saturation point of tourists. And cruises deliver a very large number of tourists.

I read that cruises deliver about 3-4% of visitors to Amsterdam.

[TRLD]

The larger european cities are not just limiting cruise ships. Amsterdam has put a ban on construction of new hotels in the city center. Barcelona is severly limiting vacation rentals.

 

Cruise ships are an easy target. Reducing ship count cuts a significant number and is much easier than trying to cut other types of travelers.

 

In the case of Amsterdam reducing ship counts is a small part of what they are doing.

[voyageur9]

And, I had missed it but apparently Greece intends to cut the number of cruise ship visits to several of the most popular island destinations

[Sea42]

17 hours ago, ontheweb said:

And I always thought museums wanted people to visit them and enjoy them.

But it's not enjoyable when the museums are jammed with people and especially herds of tour groups. Then it becomes a disappointing slog.

[Catlover54]

16 hours ago, TRLD said:

The larger european cities are not just limiting cruise ships. Amsterdam has put a ban on construction of new hotels in the city center. Barcelona is severly limiting vacation rentals.

 

Cruise ships are an easy target. Reducing ship count cuts a significant number and is much easier than trying to cut other types of travelers.

 

In the case of Amsterdam reducing ship counts is a small part of what they are doing.

 

I wasn't aware that Amsterdam had put in place a ban on new hotels in the center (that might explain the high pricing of some mediocre hotels).  I did know that entrances to the Anne Frank Museum and other popular museums have already become very restricted, with online vendors often buying up a lot of tickets in advance which they then sell with a big markup, so buyers can "skip the line."

Of course this relative reduction in hotel supply compared with demand will drive up the daily price of the hotels already there (unless they also have hotel room price controls in mind, which would create a new set of problems).  This will likely make those hotel owners happy.  It will make Amsterdam a much more exclusive place, more like Monaco (e.g., where the hoi polloi cannot afford to stay, at least not for very long).  There are pros and cons to this (depending on who you are, what your budget is, and who you like to surround yourself with when you travel). 

Some will cheer on the  idea of local government restrictions helping to create exclusivity, others not so much, but of course it has happened in many places around the world as more and more middle class people both from the west and the developing world can afford not just to travel, but to travel a lot. Even in my beautiful little area of California, which gets crowded in summer, some of our comfortably situated locals like  to restrict tourism (the people who work in tourism -- not so much), so they limit new construction and services  (and prices are now accordingly very high). 

 

With a few exceptions, I already tended to just try and naturally avoid visiting both cities and tourist sites in cities that are extremely unpleasantly full at certain times of the year (like Santorini in summer), especially when the weather is very warm and I already can't think straight .

 I don't like and have trouble with standing in line for a half hour to use a public ladies' room, or constantly watching out to make sure I am not knocked over and injured by a bicyclist out of his lane, a jogger, a scooter suddenly turning with the wheel heading for my foot, someone running to catch a bus, or someone wildly chasing someone else because they just had their handbag stolen. It creates a lot of stress for me to be careful in crowds, but of course others (younger, healthier) don't care about crowds, as long as they can be 'where the action is', and/or have bragging rights for Instagram, and they are both less likely to fall and less likely to get injured if they do.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out not just in Amsterdam, but  in Venice, in the Norwegian fjiords, Key West, etc., all places that don't want more people visiting. 

 

[voyageur9]

30 minutes ago, Catlover54 said:

..... It will be interesting to see how this plays out not just in Amsterdam, but  in Venice, in the Norwegian fjiords, Key West, etc., all places that don't want more people visiting. 

 

I think the trend is not so much cities "don't want more people visiting" but rather they want to discourage hordes of low-spending cruise ship passengers, often on cruise lines tours and rarely staying overnight. Compared to independent travelers who spend more, linger longer, and don't arrive en masse jamming streets and sites, cruise passengers are -- generally -- less desirable in terms of both revenue and strain on infrastructure. The rising efforts, in Venice, Amsterdam, Key West and other destination ports seem intended to deter big ships staying only a few hours. I suspect, smaller ships, using shore power and staying overnight will be far more welcome. 

[terrydtx]

3 hours ago, voyageur9 said:

And, I had missed it but apparently Greece intends to cut the number of cruise ship visits to several of the most popular island destinations

Santorini has had a limit on number of cruise ships and passengers a day for several years. Our Oosterdam cruise in 2022 was cut last minute from stopping there.

Edited Tuesday at 05:29 PM by terrydtx

[ontheweb]

3 hours ago, Sea42 said:

But it's not enjoyable when the museums are jammed with people and especially herds of tour groups. Then it becomes a disappointing slog.

I understand what you are saying thinking back on being in the Louvre and trying to see the Mona Lisa over the horde of people, many of whom had their selfie sticks in the air. 

 

But we did not encounter that problem in the Rijksmuseum last summer. '

 

And how often are the large guided groups actually groups sponsored by the museum itself?

[TRLD]

5 hours ago, Catlover54 said:

 

I wasn't aware that Amsterdam had put in place a ban on new hotels in the center (that might explain the high pricing of some mediocre hotels).  I did know that entrances to the Anne Frank Museum and other popular museums have already become very restricted, with online vendors often buying up a lot of tickets in advance which they then sell with a big markup, so buyers can "skip the line."

Of course this relative reduction in hotel supply compared with demand will drive up the daily price of the hotels already there (unless they also have hotel room price controls in mind, which would create a new set of problems).  This will likely make those hotel owners happy.  It will make Amsterdam a much more exclusive place, more like Monaco (e.g., where the hoi polloi cannot afford to stay, at least not for very long).  There are pros and cons to this (depending on who you are, what your budget is, and who you like to surround yourself with when you travel). 

Some will cheer on the  idea of local government restrictions helping to create exclusivity, others not so much, but of course it has happened in many places around the world as more and more middle class people both from the west and the developing world can afford not just to travel, but to travel a lot. Even in my beautiful little area of California, which gets crowded in summer, some of our comfortably situated locals like  to restrict tourism (the people who work in tourism -- not so much), so they limit new construction and services  (and prices are now accordingly very high). 

 

With a few exceptions, I already tended to just try and naturally avoid visiting both cities and tourist sites in cities that are extremely unpleasantly full at certain times of the year (like Santorini in summer), especially when the weather is very warm and I already can't think straight .

 I don't like and have trouble with standing in line for a half hour to use a public ladies' room, or constantly watching out to make sure I am not knocked over and injured by a bicyclist out of his lane, a jogger, a scooter suddenly turning with the wheel heading for my foot, someone running to catch a bus, or someone wildly chasing someone else because they just had their handbag stolen. It creates a lot of stress for me to be careful in crowds, but of course others (younger, healthier) don't care about crowds, as long as they can be 'where the action is', and/or have bragging rights for Instagram, and they are both less likely to fall and less likely to get injured if they do.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out not just in Amsterdam, but  in Venice, in the Norwegian fjiords, Key West, etc., all places that don't want more people visiting. 

 

Amsterdam is actually looking at converting some of the existing center city hotels to businesses or housing. They want any new hotels to be built away from the city center and for tourist to use mass transit.  They are also planning on distributing tourist attractions outside the city center were possible. Basically tourist decentralization as well as reduction.

[Catlover54]

2 hours ago, TRLD said:

Amsterdam is actually looking at converting some of the existing center city hotels to businesses or housing. They want any new hotels to be built away from the city center and for tourist to use mass transit.  They are also planning on distributing tourist attractions outside the city center were possible. Basically tourist decentralization as well as reduction.

 

Interesting idea, i.e., "distributing tourist attractions outside the city center where possible" (beyond the idea of encouraging diverting visits to places that are already outside, some pictures of which I posted in #20, or to Rotterdam). Will most people still come?

Some of the precise appeal in big cities is to visit *historic* central locations (Anne Frank house), old canals and old architecture, and to just walk around taking it all in and imagine life in centuries past, just like in Venice.

But I suppose they could build a new Rijksmuseum and move the art to somewhere in the suburbs, and/or maybe even do a reconstruction of the Anne Frank house, and build new canals away from the city center . . .

 

I loved subways in Europe when I was younger and healthier (buses not so much) , but  DH and I don't ride much mass transit anymore. Too many times there are no seats when we're on the go,  and I cannot safely stand up well in a moving vehicle.  I also note most young men  do not get up to make seats available for seniors, much less women (they're tired too!), as often as they used to. Plus it is often hot,  and respiratory infection transmission risks are greater when you're packed together closely.  So we tend to book within walking distance of most of the things we want to see *in* a big city, unless we want to see the beautiful countryside or a villa garden or castle out of town.  

I certainly understand the concerns locals have about letting their city be overrun by outsiders, especially if they don't need tourist revenue as much as they used to.