Amsterdam will bar cruise ships from docking in the city centre as part of a broader effort to curb pollution and reduce the large numbers of tourists who visit the Dutch capital.

The City Council passed a proposal on Thursday to close a terminal where more than a hundred cruise ships dock each year not far from the central train station.

“The motivation of the proposal from the City Council was to reduce the number of tourists, but also for environmental reasons,” Amsterdam’s deputy mayor, Hester van Buren, said in a statement on Friday. The municipality has not yet determined when the change will take effect.

The cruise ship measure was the latest attempt by Amsterdam to cap the number of visitors and crack down on bad behaviour as the tourism industry has rebounded, addressing residents’ longstanding grievances linked to overcrowding and rowdy tourists. Last year, the city drew about 20 million visitors and in 2021, close to nine million tourists came either for a day trip or overnight, according to city data.

To appease the city’s 900,000 residents, the local government this spring introduced a raft of new measures aimed at sending a message to disruptive tourists to behave or stay away. It has banned the smoking of marijuana on the streets of its popular red-light district, mandated earlier closing hours for cafes and restaurants and prostitution businesses, and banned the sale of alcohol in stores after 4pm (local time) from Thursday to Sunday.

The city also released an ad campaign in March aimed at British men aged 18 to 35, threatening fines for those who come to the city for a “messy night”. “Amsterdam prides itself on being a very open and tolerant city,” said Ko Koens, a professor of new urban tourism at Inholland University of Applied Sciences in Amsterdam. But residents felt that the open attitude was being abused by tourists.

Covid showed residents how quiet the city could be, he said, adding that Amsterdam wanted to send a message: “Party time is over.”

Amsterdam’s central cruise terminal has welcomed more than 3.8 million passengers and 2,100 ships since it opened in 2000, according to its website.

Dick de Graaff, managing director of Cruise Port Amsterdam, said they had noted that the council no longer wanted sea cruises at the terminal’s current location. But details were still unclear on when that measure would be implemented and on the process of searching for a new location. “There is certainly no immediate ban on ships — let alone an immediate closure of the terminal,” he said in a statement. “It is business as usual.”

New York Times News Service