In the latest of a long series of plans to limit ‘overtourism’ in the city, Amsterdam’s city council has voted to close the city’s cruise port, which lies just east of the main rail station and downtown canal district.
The decision, which doesn’t yet have an action date and with cruises already scheduled through July 2025, comes in the wake of limits on tourism in the ‘Red Light’ district, street drinking, and smoking of cannabis by visitors. The city says that its 22 million visitors a year and a reputation for ‘party tourism’ have driven locals out of the city’s historic center.
Figures offered by the city say that a visit by one large cruise ship produces CO2 equivalent to 30,000 trucks circling the city, although some have called the figure exaggerated. Also, the present location of the terminal complicates plans to build a new bridge across the Ij waterway to the city’s growing northern area. Some city councilors have suggested that the cruise port could be moved to a less central area of the city.
It is also not yet clear whether the city’s action is directed only at large ocean-going cruise ships or would also affect the much-smaller river cruise ships that start many itineraries on the Rhine and elsewhere from Amsterdam. Those ships generally carry a maximum of around 200 passengers.
