The next phase in Amsterdam’s efforts to discourage nuisance tourism focuses on special websites under the slogan “Amsterdam rules”. 

The first of these, targeting British visitors, takes the form of a quiz asking the potential tourists what they would like to do in Amsterdam and pointing out all the problems with their plans.  

“What famous Dutch products would you like to try?” it asks, before listing several options, including stroopwafels, tulips, molly (a slang word for ecstasy) and cocaine.

If you want to go on organised bar crawl you are told no, it is not an option, nor is going out until 2 am. After a run through the website then tells the user that “considering your preferences, Amsterdam may not offer the experience you are looking for.” 

Messy night

The new offensive is the follow up to the “stay away” campaign featuring videos showing what could go wrong on a “messy” night in Amsterdam. 

“We are taking a different approach this time,” city centre chief Sofyan Mbarki told a council meeting on Wednesday night. “In the first campaigns we focused on the risks. Now we are focusing on the things some tourists associate with the city, associations which we want to demolish.”

The site is now live for British nationals and will soon be published in Italian, Spanish and French. There will also be a website focused on Dutch tourists from outside the capital. The campaign will run until the end of 2024.

The Dutch justice ministry is contributing €85,000 towards the project and the city has so far allocated €55,000 for developing and testing the websites, the Parool reported on Thursday. The advertising budget itself will come on top and, the Parool says, €25,000 has been put into the campaign targeting British tourists. 

Research into the impact of the “stay away” campaign showed that while it had slightly raised awareness there was no effect on the number of budget tourists coming to the capital. 

Councillors have their doubts too about the new effort and CDA councillor Rogier Havelaar said during the debate that he had a fundamental objection to the latest plan.

“We want a different image for our city, so we carry out campaigns,” he said.  “At the same time we make the international press with the biggest brothel in Europe and the wish to legalise cocaine,” he said, referring to a recent interview in the Guardian by mayor Femke Halsema. 

As well as the “Stay away” campaign, the city has introduced including earlier closing times for brothels and bars, a crackdown on alcohol sales in the red light district, and a ban on smoking cannabis in public.