Amsterdam will ban cannabis smoking in the red light district from mid-May. In this way, they expect to improve living conditions for citizens who have long complained about the mess caused by tourists.
In addition, restaurants and bars in the city center will have to close until 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and tourists will no longer be allowed into the old part of the city after 1 a.m.
Before this, Amsterdam had already decided to remove many souvenir shops, cheap hotels, and coffee shops (establishments with permission to sell cannabis soft drugs) from the city center.
Late last year, Amsterdam launched a campaign called “Stay Away” to restrict certain types of tourism. The campaign emphasized that Amsterdam welcomes those tourists who “make a positive contribution to the development of the city.”
Amsterdam receives more than 20 million foreign visitors annually. According to a study by the Dutch government, 58% of foreign travelers came to Amsterdam for drug use.