The Dutch (some of them) are fed up, according to the BBC:
Posted by
New York, NY
4071 posts
It seems like articles about tourists come out every few months.
Sounds like it is more the type of tourist that the Netherlands seems to attract that is the problem. To trample on tulips....what is WRONG with people? The Dutch don't want the "Disneyland" effect; perhaps those who complain should first look in the mirror and make changes from within. Maybe start with Keukenhof. Perhaps make Keukenhof less of a Disney-like attraction with overt commercialism of having employees dress as Disney-like characters and make it more about the beds of FLOWERS themselves. The huge tour buses complained about in the article are very ones that bring mobs & mobs of tourists to the gardens for the 2 months Keukenhof is open.
Tour groups like RS arrive in the massive tour buses complained about in the article. If the groups are only 25 people, why the need for such a large bus that truly offends the people the tour groups are visiting?
While I get annoyed by articles that constantly attack tourists, when I see the damage & total disregard many of these tourists do and practice respectively, I can understand their POV.
Posted by
Chicago
2042 posts
I noticed in the article most of the problem was with the big cruise ships. I'm sorry but for most of the big cruise lines, there are about 3000 people on board. Multiply that by two or three and at the minimum there could be about 6000 descending on one area at a time. Cities can't have that many people in an enclosed area(they all keep to the tourist route) and not have problems.
I understand that people like to cruise but those behemoth ships are environmentally harmful IMHO. Sadly, I see that even Rick is encouraging cruises on them.
Posted by
The Heartland USA
8965 posts
The article was about the Kinderdijk area. We were just there with, yes, a big bus tour group, last month. It was not crowded and the groups we saw were pretty respectful. It wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as the hordes of party-seeking young folks in downtown Amsterdam. There was only one windmill you could see close up - the designated museum. Do you restrict access to what is really a world treasure? Pull permits from tour companies that don't manage their groups well? As we learned on our tour, the money from tourism helps subsidize the inefficient lifestyle that they seek to preserve. So whats the solution?
Posted by
Eastern Iowa, USA
8050 posts
It is not just the Netherlands, you will see much the same article about Venice, Florence, Barcelona, name any popular destination, you can find a story about over tourism.
Sorry to say, it is not only the badly behaved that are a problem, or the tour buses, or the cruise ships, except for the point that they can contribute to a high density of people into a defined area. In that respect,even the well behaved, low impact travelers on here contribute to the problem just by being there.
What is the solution? I suppose that is the $64 Million Dollar question. Avoiding the most popular areas would be a start, hit the little known areas, but try telling a first time visitor to Italy to skip Venice, Florence, and Rome.
Posted by
Green Bay
21140 posts
Sounds like North Korea has found the solution.
Posted by
52 posts
It seems like the mayor's desire is not to shun or reduce tourism, but rather manage it so that the lives of residents are not negatively impacted. She stated, “What’s of great importance to the city is that Amsterdam is a place where people live. This is not a frozen tourist spot where life becomes difficult. We need to think about what kind of tourists we want to attract, as we shouldn’t have any illusion that the number of tourists in the city will go down. It will keep on rising.”