‘On trip from morals’: Amsterdam mayor says vacationers coming for intercourse, medication not welcome

Beautiful canals, picturesque streets and nice museums — Amsterdam has lengthy been a favorite vacation spot for these with wandering ft. But there’s a motive why the City of Canals is usually known as the City of Sin — a vibrant red-light district.

Prostitution is authorized in Amsterdam, weed is decriminalised and each are an ideal income. But that didn’t cease town’s mayor from giving the stink eye to vacationers who come looking for intercourse and medicines.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema emphasised that she loves vacationers and welcomes those that “come for the beauty of our city, for our museums or for our night culture”. What she, and several other different political leaders, have an issue with is vacationers who show a specific “form of behaviour”.

“What we do not welcome is people who come here on a vacation from morals. They express a form of behavior they would not express at home. People coming here to lose their morals is a problem for us,” she mentioned.

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Acknowledging that tourism is a crucial a part of the Netherlands’ economic system, Halsema mentioned the growing inflow of vacationers and expats to the Dutch capital is making issues costlier and driving up the price of dwelling.

She additionally said that Amsterdam can accommodate solely so many non-residents, and claimed that locals have gotten estranged due to the rising numbers of vacationers taking on elements of town.

This wasn’t the primary time the Amsterdam mayor made a robust assertion on refusing entry to sure sorts of vacationers. Earlier in June, Halsema mentioned banning vacationers from “cannabis cafes” will assist convey down crime within the metropolis.

Coffee retailers that promote delicate medication to vacationers are commonplace within the Dutch capital. Halsema mentioned these companies are sometimes tied up with organised crime and cash laundering, and reducing down on vacationer visitors that frequents these locations will hit them the place it hurts.

The authorities has opposed Halsema’s proposal to ban non-residents from hashish cafes as they worry it might result in rise in road dealing of medicine.

Since she turned Amsterdam’s first feminine mayor in 2018, 56-year-old Femke Halsema has launched laws to overtake town’s red-light district and defend intercourse staff. Some of those proposed legal guidelines are ending road window shows, stepping up the licensing of window staff, lowering the variety of city-center brothels, and shutting them down altogether and shifting them elsewhere.

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