Amsterdam will move a cruise liner terminal out of the heart of the historic capital city as the latest step in its ongoing battle against pollution and hordes of tourists clogging its narrow, cobbled streets.
Like Rome, Venice, and Paris, the Dutch capital is one of the many picturesque European cities grappling with managing visitor numbers again soaring in the aftermath of the COVID-19 lockdowns.
City aldermen voted Thursday in favor of a motion calling on the city to move the cruise ship terminal away from its current location close to Amsterdam’s central train station.
The motion was an initiative of the centrist D66 party, the social-democrat PvdA, and the green-leftwing party Groenlinks.
“A clear decision has been made by the council that the cruise (terminal) should leave the city,” Ilana Rooderkerk, leader of the Amsterdam D66 party told The Associated Press in an email on Friday.
“The municipal executive of Amsterdam is now going to work on how to implement it. In any case, as far as we are concerned, large ships no longer moor in the city center of Amsterdam.”
Not an Immediate Closure
Dick de Graaff, director of Cruise Port Amsterdam, the organization operating the terminal in the city center, said he had taken note of the vote and is awaiting the city’s next move.
“There is no immediate closing of the terminal. The council’s call is to relocate the terminal—and we await a follow-up from the alderman on investigations,” he wrote in an email response.
One hundred fourteen ships are expected to moor at the Amsterdam terminal for a stop this year, and 130 next year, Mr. De Graaf said.
Amsterdam has for a while been taking measures to reduce the impact of increasing numbers of tourists. Other measures include a ban on smoking weed in the narrow streets of its red-light district and a proposal to move out of the city center many of the windows where scantily-clad prostitutes put themselves on display.
Earlier this year, Amsterdam even launched a campaign specifically targeting young British men—for years, a source of complaints from local residents. The campaign was called “Stay Away,” an effort to combat what it called “nuisance tourism”— excessive use of drugs and booze and associated public debauchery.
“Visitors will remain welcome, but not if they misbehave and cause nuisance. In that case, we as a city will say: rather not, stay away,” Deputy Mayor Sofyan Mbarki said in a statement at the time.
But for Ms. Rooderkerk, banning cruise ships is about more than just reining in tourism. “Polluting cruise ships are not in line with the sustainable ambitions of our city,” she said via Twitter after the vote.
Ms. Rooderkerk also mentioned that the constant coming and going of towering cruise ships prevented constructing a second bridge over the waterway to link the city with its fast-growing northern suburbs.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.