Amsterdam Bans Cruise Ships from Docking in City
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"In addition, cruise ships in the city center do not fit into Amsterdam's task to reduce the number of tourists. In other words, Amsterdam sails better without cruises." The proposal, which was adopted by a large majority in the city council on Thursday, aims to close down the ocean cruise terminal near Amsterdam’s central rail station and move it further from the city to an undetermined location. No clear timeline has been set, however, and Cruise Port Amsterdam, which operates the terminal, said it is waiting for more information regarding next steps. “Polluting cruise ships are not in line with the sustainable ambitions of our city,” said a statement from the centre-right party D66, which runs the city with the social democrats PvdA and GroenLinks environmentalists.
Amsterdam wants to ban cruise ships from docking in the city - Quartz
Amsterdam wants to ban cruise ships from docking in the city.
Posted: Fri, 21 Jul 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Implementation Seems Unlikely in Near Future
While this isn’t a new concept, the city government seems eager to implement the ban. French Polynesia—It's been 18 months since the government of French Polynesia banned cruise ships carrying more than 3,500 passengers at any of the country's ports, including at popular destination Bora Bora. Tahiti now only welcomes ships with fewer than 2,500 passengers and those with more than 1,200 can't dock at all in Bora Bora, according to Conde Nast Traveler.
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The future of cruise ships in Amsterdam may not be as clear as recent council statements indicate. The city has also placed on a ban on smoking cannabis in public and has reduced alcohol sales in some areas of the city center. “The city’s executive branch still needs to work out the details and it was unclear when the measure might be implemented. For now, he said, “It is business as usual at the terminal.” Cruise Port Amsterdam also operates the river cruise terminals near the city center, but it wasn’t immediately clear whether those docks would need to move as well. While Barcelona has not outright banned cruise ships, it has made efforts to limit the number arriving in its docks.
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The proposal to ban cruises had been put forward by the Democrats 66 party, which oversees the city alongside the social democratic PvdA and the GroenLinks environmentalists. Ultimately, cruise lines are skeptical that ships will be completely barred from docking in Amsterdam. Amsterdam, which added that it was seeking to keep hotel stays by tourists to under 20 million per year, saw its highest number of visitors before the pandemic in 2019, when there were 25.2 million hotel stays, according to the city’s data. A report from Deutsche Welle says that about 300,000 cruise ship travellers head to the Dutch capital every year.
War On Cruise Ships? Amsterdam Latest Port To Limit Or Ban Cruise Liners
And in March, Amsterdam launched a “Stay Away” campaign to discourage tourists planning drug and alcohol-fuelled parties. Amsterdam has been searching for any way to rein in the number of tourists that visit the city every year. The changes come at the time when Amsterdam has been announced as Europe’s best capital city to be a tourist in by VisaGuide.World, leaving behind capitals like Rome and Paris. The same source emphasises that the IJ Terminal, located on the waterfront near the capital’s rail station, will now have to move outside the city. The Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) has made a statement clarifying the reports and explaining ongoing discussions about port facilities, improvements, and the potential for relocation. In a separate development, Amsterdam has announced plans to beef up night-time culture for young people.
“The municipality of Amsterdam is going to investigate how this proposal can be implemented,” she wrote. Amsterdam is a popular port of call on northern European itineraries, or specialized cruises visiting multiple European capital cities. It is also often part of Scandinavian, Nordic, and Baltic Sea itineraries, as it provides a convenient port of call en route to Denmark, Norway, Sweden, or Finland.
Amsterdam bans cruise liners in an effort to reduce mass tourism - CNN
Amsterdam bans cruise liners in an effort to reduce mass tourism.
Posted: Sun, 30 Jul 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
At the time, Venice was in danger of being classified as “world heritage in danger” by the United Nations, meaning overtourism was threatening the architecture and environment that put the historic center of Venice on the World Heritage List in 2001. Amsterdam wants to decrease the number of visitors—or, at the very least, attract those who won’t create headaches for residents. To that end, earlier this year, the city launched a “stay away” advertising campaign targeting poorly behaved tourists. Amsterdam’s leaders say cruise ships do not align with the city’s sustainability goals.
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Venice has already banned large cruise ships from entering, while Barcelona, Santorini, and Dubrovnik have or will limit cruise ship arrivals. Besides the influx of tourists in the city, the environmental footprint of the large cruise ships docking in the town is a primary concern. Besides the ocean-going ships, Amsterdam is a primary homeport for river cruise ships sailing from the Netherlands to Germany, Switzerland, France, and Eastern Europe.
In addition, Amsterdam has a reputation as one of Europe's most notorious cities, famed for its cannabis cafes and red light district, with around 22 million tourists flocking there every year. In recent years, city officials have sought to reinvent the image of the Dutch capital by reducing party tourism and upping their sustainability stakes. Officials see banning cruise ships as an easy win for Amsterdam's ambitious sustainability target of becoming completely emission-free by 2030.
The cruise ship ban will result in the closure of the city's central terminal on the River IJ, near Amsterdam's main train station. In February, the council also banned people from smoking cannabis in the streets of the city's famous red-light district and ordered bars and restaurants to shut by 2am on Fridays and Saturdays. Cruise Hive was established back in 2008 and among the earliest blogs in the industry. Since the start, it's been our aim to provide the latest cruise news covering all the major cruise lines. We make sure cruisers are fully prepared for their cruise vacation with tips on ships and ports.Millions of travelers rely on Cruise Hive in the United States, Europe, Australia, and around the world.
In 2021, Italy’s government said large cruise ships would no longer be allowed to sail directly into Venice. Dubrovnik, in Croatia, took steps several years ago to limit the number of cruise passengers visiting at once. And residents of Key West voted to ban giant ships in late 2020 — though that vote was overturned the following year. As part of efforts to halt the influx of tourists and minimise pollution from the giant vessels, authorities in Amsterdam have voted to ban cruise ships. Amsterdam’s city council has decided to close a cruise ship terminal in its centre, in the latest attempt to limit mass tourism in the Dutch capital. "[Cruise pollution] does not match the sustainable ambitions of our city," D66 politician Ilana Rooderkerk said in a statement.
Cruise Port Amsterdam also notes that there is no policy proposal yet made impacting cruise ship calls, nor is there any timeline mentioned for such drastic changes. While it is possible that a new port location is being investigated, but the port has no information about that option at this time. The council has been trying to scrub up the city, banning cannabis smoking on the streets of the red-light district. Alternative sites from cruise ships have been considered, though no decision has yet been made on where it could be placed.
The cruise industry has been under intense scrutiny in recent years to clean up its act environmentally, at the same time it struggles to overcome debt from the Covid shutdown and faces staff shortages. Port cities in Florida, Maine, Alaska, and California are all fighting to further regulate the cruise industry, Business Insider reported, but there's little they can do because most piers are owned by the federal government. Environmental activists have called for an end to cruises altogether, slamming them for poor labor practices, insensitive cultural impacts, environmental damage and other concerns. Cruise Lines International Association, an industry trade group, says in a statement that 1 percent of visitors to Amsterdam arrive via cruise ships, which contribute some 105 million euros to the city each year. Amsterdam will bar cruise ships from docking in the city center as part of a broader effort to curb pollution and reduce the large numbers of tourists who visit the Dutch capital.
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