The city of Amsterdam has come up with yet another plan to discourage bothersome tourists—an online quiz.
The goal of the Amsterdam Rules quiz is to provide visitors with information about the city. Tourist motivations for wanting to visit the capital of the Netherlands are inquired about. Visitors who expect to participate in pub crawls or smoke weed in public will be disappointed.
Advertising and legislative initiatives are only two of the ways that Amsterdam has been trying to lessen the impact of tourism. Thus far, only a small amount of relief has emerged from any of them.
With an additional 21% increase to 9 million overnight stays in 2023, the number of visitors returning to Amsterdam will surpass that which was seen before the epidemic.
Tourist numbers are predicted to hit all-time highs in the next few years, according to the city. The issue now is exactly how much more Amsterdam can handle, given that the historic center’s small streets and bridges were never meant to support huge crowds.
The locals are becoming tired of the constant stream of visitors, which makes it difficult for them to do their daily business and return home.
Despite widespread agreement that overtourism is a major issue, politicians in Europe have failed to find a solution.
Sofyan Mbarki, a local lawmaker, thinks that Amsterdam’s reputation as a town where everything goes is the main issue. His goal in creating the quiz is to alter tourists’ perceptions of the city. However, repairing a negative reputation takes time.
It is now evident that overtourism is a big problem in several European cities, including Venice, Italy, Amsterdam, and others.
While discussions about Amsterdam tend to center on the “red light district” and a specific kind of tourist, reducing the impact of that subset of visitors is insufficient. The city must address the problem of excessive tourism as a whole.
Reports reveal that bravery is required to prioritize long-term goals of creating a livable city above immediate financial gains. And it takes guts to go up against the tourism industry’s fury, as they have a powerful lobby that only cares about tourist dollars.
