Visiting Amsterdam for some weed experimentation might soon be a thing of the past. The city is currently floating the idea of keeping tourist out of their cannabis cafes, and just leaving the hash bars open to citizens. It’s a move that, if put in motion, would be designed to “balance quality of life for locals with the demands of visitors.”
Mayor Femke Halsema commissioned a survey that revealed more than half of young visitors to the city, 57% to be exact, do so to experience the weed. The point of the survey was to answer the question of what would happen to Amsterdam’s tourism if “availability or accessibility” should “reduce or disappear.”
In recent years, there’s been a problem with “over-tourism” and “tourists behaving badly.” So, the city has been looking at ways to deal with the problem without shooting themselves in the foot by giving people reasons not to visit Amsterdam. The survey also revealed that 34% would visit Amsterdam less if they couldn’t toke up in the coffee houses, and 11% said they “wouldn’t come at all.” This all comes after the city already clamped down on tours going through the Red-Light District after 10pm, which clogged up the streets with tourists gawking at the prostitutes in the windows – window shopping without the intent to buy the goods.
Source: CNN
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