City Council Approves Sandar Ban, Cruise Ship Terminal In Amsterdam Will Be Closed

Two cruise ships are docked at the Passagiers Terminal Amsterdam (PTA). (Wikimedia Commons/Kleon3)

JAKARTA - Amsterdam City Council, the Netherlands has approved a proposal banning cruise ships that "incur pollution", as part of the city's latest move to suppress overtourism.

Amsterdam Deputy Mayor spokesman Hester van Buren, who is in charge of the city's port, told CNN the council approved a proposal to close the cruise ship terminal in the city last month.

D66's centre-left party, which sits on the board, said in a statement the proposal was "evaluated with a clear majority."

The Amsterdam City Government will now investigate how to implement the proposal, according to a spokesman for van Buren.

This will include discussions with North Sea Canal managers, other city councils on the canal and the Dutch Government.

The chairman of the D66 party, Ilana Rooney, stressed in his statement that "polluting cruise ships are not in accordance with Amsterdam's sustainable ambitions".

"The cruise ship at the heart of the city is not in line with Amsterdam's goal of reducing the number of tourists," Rooney added, quoted by CNN on August 3.

Amsterdam is expected to receive more than 18 million visitors overnight this year. By 2025, that number could reach 23 million, in addition to 24 million to 25 million visits per day.

Under a 2021 regulation called "Amsterdam Tourism in Balance," when the number of visitors who spend the night reaches 18 million people, the city council is "obligatory to intervene."

Earlier this year, the city launched a campaign that changed its approach to tourism, particularly including a specially designed tactic to prevent British tourists from attending a shopping party.

The online campaign "Stay Away" aims to prevent young British youths planning to visit Amsterdam from partying and "going wild", by warning visitors between the ages of 18 and 35 from drinking too much, taking illegal drugs, or taking antisocial behavior.

In addition, Amsterdam also announced this year that it would ban the use of marijuana on the road and take new steps to prevent alcohol in the city's'red light distraction' area, the city's traditional center of legal sex trafficking.

This follows an announcement from the city in 2019, in which they will end their tour of the red light distraction, citing concerns about sex workers being treated as a tourist attraction.

In an effort to "limit tourism and prevent disturbances," Amsterdam also plans to restrict river cruise ships, turn hotels into offices, and impose early closing hours at bars and clubs.

However, it looks like the city center will not become a cruise ship-free zone in the near future, a deputy mayor spokesman told CNN, admitting that the proposal would "take time" to implement.