Amsterdam launches campaign urging rowdy British men to 'stay away'

Amsterdam is launching a new online campaign urging young British men to "stay away" if they plan to visit the city to "go wild," CNN reports.

The campaign targets visitors from the United Kingdom between the ages of 18 and 35 in an attempt to dissuade "nuisance visitors" from coming to the city and engaging in disruptive behavior. If British visitors search for terms like "stag party Amsterdam," "cheap hotel Amsterdam" or "pub crawl Amsterdam," a video advertisement "warning them of the consequences of drinking too much, taking drugs, or causing trouble through antisocial behavior" will appear, CNN explains.

The campaign is an attempt to clean up the reputation of the Netherlands capital, "famed for its red light district and coffee shops that sell marijuana," Bloomberg writes. It is also part of several measures initiated by the city council to discourage rowdy mass tourism, which includes "seeking to ban outdoor marijuana smoking in the red light district." Amsterdam is also considering "a new location for an erotic center away from the district," Bloomberg adds.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

"Visitors will remain welcome, but not if they misbehave and cause nuisance. In that case we as a city will say: rather not, stay away," deputy mayor Sofyan Mbarki said in a release.

The city may expand the "Stay Away" campaign later in the year to include visitors from elsewhere in the Netherlands and other European Union countries. The city will also launch a "How to Amsterdam" campaign this month, aimed at tourists already in Amsterdam. Social media and street signs will warn tourists "about drunkenness, causing too much noise, buying drugs from street dealers, and the ban on urinating in public," CNN summarizes. The city council is also talking to bachelor party providers to find a solution to reduce nuisance tourism and "is awaiting research results on the possibility of applying a tourist tax."