• Amsterdam’s Red Light District is a tourist magnet.
• City officials presented policies “to manage tourism growth and disturbance”
• Unruly tourist behavior may be addressed by restricting river trips.

On a chilly Saturday in the first week of December, it’s just about dusk. Nevertheless, things are already getting hot in Amsterdam‘s Red Light District.

Intense cheers can be heard from from packed bars during World Cup soccer matches. Coffee cafes give off marijuana-like odors. A car or even a bike would find it challenging, if not impossible, to maneuver through the crowds of tourists swarming the congested streets.

A few guys pause to inquire about the services provided by the lingerie-clad sex workers posing behind the windows of brothels. However, most people just stand there and stare or gape as they walk.

A middle-aged man in jeans and a baseball cap takes a photo of his pal against the glass of one business along the Oudezijds Voorburgwal canal despite warning signs that prohibit photographing. After another photo, they switch positions, smile, and depart.

One of the most notorious tourist hotspots on earth is experiencing just another ordinary day. However, if municipal officials had their way, the De Wallen area, as it is known locally, will eventually entice tourists who learn to appreciate its distinctive history, architecture, and culture instead of its vices.

City officials recently unveiled policy recommendations “to control tourism growth and nuisance” and fight overcrowding as the next step in a long-running effort to improve Amsterdam’s reputation, lessen unruly behavior from visitors, and improve livability and safety for inhabitants.

In the most recent round of proposed regulations, steps are being proposed to address unruly visitor behavior, such as reducing the number of river excursions, adopting early closing times for bars, clubs, and window brothels, and outlawing cannabis smoking in specific areas of the city.

Another part of the initiative focuses on “actively discouraging international visitors with plans to ‘go wild’ in Amsterdam,” which has been dubbed as the “stay away” campaign.

“Some businesses misuse Amsterdam’s image to sell it as a place of ‘unlimited possibilities,'” Deputy Mayor Sofyan Mbarki said in a statement. “As a result, some groups of visitors think of it as a city where anything goes. This kind of tourism, as well as offerings specifically targeting these groups, is not considered desirable by the Municipal Executive.”

The November 30th-announced policy ideas, which are a part of a larger effort to address mass tourism, must be approved by city council on December 21 in order to become effective. Some, though, are already on board in the Amsterdam tourism industry.

“We should get rid of the image of sex, drugs and rock and roll,” says Remco Groenhuijzen, general manager of the Mövenpick Hotel Amsterdam City Center. “It’s not bad that we have a city that’s a little bit on the edge. But that’s not a free [pass] to come here and misbehave.”

According to Groenhuijzen, the majority of the 24 four- and five-star hotels that make up the Luxury Hotels of Amsterdam, an association of which he is chairman, support the city’s efforts to improve its reputation by taking a variety of steps to address (and prevent) the undesirable effects of unruly tourists.

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