The Dutch capital has been increasing initiatives to limit the impacts of mass tourism on its territory. Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema has said she is in favor of regulating hard drugs like cocaine and MDMA.
In 2019, the year before Covid, more than 20 million visited the Venice of the North. Since 2018, the city of Amsterdam has launched 26 initiatives to reduce the number of tourists, which number in the millions each year. In 2017, in 2017, Amsterdam tried to introduce a restrictive policy on hotel real estate. Not enough to satisfy the municipal council for whom the measures adopted did not have the desired effect. The rule will not apply to new establishments that have already obtained a building permit. The number of beds cannot increase. The hotel must also be better, for example, more modern and/or more sustainable. And above all, Amsterdam wants to discourage a certain type of behavior, particularly related to drugs. The city actively works to limit a certain kind of behavior.