Is Amsterdam About to Block Tourists from Cannabis Cafes?

While most cities clamor for more tourism traffic, the mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema has a different view. As the Mirror reports, the Amsterdam mayor says that the number of tourists visiting her city is too much to cope with. According to a post on the Mirror website, the mayor of the Netherlands capital city has proposed several measures to cut tourism.

After surveying 100 tourists, aged 18 to 35, it was determined that a key reason people visit Amsterdam is the coffee shops in the red-light district, where cannabis can be consumed freely. And in other surveys, about 50% of Brits say they would be less likely to visit Amsterdam again if they were blocked from the city’s famous hash cafes. So, the Mayor wants to do just that.

She says that her aim is to improve the lives of the 1.1 million permanent Amsterdam citizens by reducing the 17 million-plus yearly vacationers and tourists who visit the city. Separately, the city has already announced a ban on the 115 or so red-light district tours that pass through daily. That ban, along with bans on tours of other areas of the city, goes into effect on April 1 (no joke).