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Amsterdam 'creaking under weight of mass tourism'

Life for residents in the centre of Amsterdam is becoming impossible because the city has been given over to tourism, a leading architect has complained.

Leo Onderwater wrote in NRC Handelsblad that saturation tourism has forced out facilities such as public libraries, hospitals, higher education facilities and the courthouse.

In their place stand hotels, restaurants, galleries and sex shops, while local residents are being squeezed out by spiraling property prices and the sheer weight of pedestrian traffic.

Onderwater claimed that the quality of life in the city centre and its cultural environment are suffering from the unchecked expansion of the tourist sector.

‘The main question is whether the city centre can retain its quality of life amid the escalating pressure of tourism,’ he wrote.

Yet most Amsterdam residents apparently think it can. Research suggests most people living in De Pijp and the Rivierenbuurt are generally proud of living in an area that attracts millions of visitors each year.

Only four per cent of people surveyed in De Pijp believed that the city council’s tourism policies had a negative effect on their lives.

A survey of 221 international cities by Mercer’s, which rates them on quality of life, put Amsterdam in twelfth place.

The poll is conducted among expat communities, who are asked to score cities on 39 factors including the availability of international schools, local facilities and whether they have enough living space.

Source: NRC: Haal de bruggen op: Amsterdam gaat kapot aan toerisme

Photo by Shirley de Jong