Amsterdam has become the latest European destination to tell Brits looking for a ‘messy’ holiday to ‘stay away’. The Netherlands' hopes the message will discourage sex, drug, and booze focused trips to its capital, particularly among young British men.
The ‘Stay Away’ campaign was launched by the Dutch city’s council this week and will target men aged 18 to 35 in the UK.
It aims to put partygoers off making the trip to Amsterdam, which is famously known for its legalised use of cannabis and Red Light District, where prostitution has been legal since 2000.
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The council has released online ads which highlights the risks associated with excessive alcohol and drug use.
Internet search terms such as ‘stag party’, ‘pub crawl’ and ‘cheap hotels’ will trigger the ‘Stay Away’ campaign to appear to the targeted audience.
One video begins with a bottle smashing onto a pavement, before showing a drunk man shouting at police officers while staggering against a wall.
He is handcuffed and taken to a police station where he is processed through custody, before a final shot shows him alone in a cell with his head in his hands.
It says: “Coming to Amsterdam for a messy night + getting trashed = 140 Euro fine + criminal record = fewer prospects.
“So coming to Amsterdam for a messy night? Stay away.”
Another video released as part of the campaign shows an apparently drunk young man passed out on a park bench.
An ambulance arrives and paramedics blue-light him to hospital, where medics work on him before the final shot shows him supposedly unconscious in a hospital bed.
The message reads: “Coming to Amsterdam to take drugs + lose control = hospital trip + permanent health damage = worried family.
“So coming for drugs to Amsterdam? Stay away.”
The campaign has been launched on the back of fed up residents who are tired of anti-social tourists visiting their country to attend pub crawls, cannabis cafés and brothels.
The crackdown is set to come into effect in mid-May and will include the ban of smoking cannabis on the streets of its famous red light district, and requiring restaurants and brothels to close earlier at weekends.
A statement on the Government of Amsterdam’s website said the measures aimed to counteract the “enormous nuisance” visitors pose to locals, especially at night.
“Residents of the old town suffer a lot from mass tourism and alcohol and drug abuse in the streets. Especially at night the atmosphere can get grim.
“People who are under the influence hang around for a long time. Residents cannot sleep well and the neighbourhood becomes unsafe and unlivable,” it said.
It comes as Lanzarote’s leader has said it is looking for a “higher quality of tourists” this holiday season as its new strategy aims to “reduce dependence on the British market."
María Dolores Corujo, the Socialist party head of Lanzarote’s local government, told a tourism trade fair in Berlin: “It’s essential to work on the diversification of the [tourism] sector and the growth of markets like the German market . . . and [drawing] holidaymakers who spend more when they’re here and [moving] us away from mass tourism.”
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