Enough with the boozy bike tours

Het Financieele Dagblad Amsterdam is reclaiming its streets from the tourists, said Lisa van der Velden. Last week, the new four-party coalition municipal government—which can agree on little else—announced drastic measures to curb overcrowding and drunken rowdiness in the city center. The cruise ship terminal, which disgorges thousands of tourists at a time, will be relocated far outside the city, and canal boat tours will now start on the outskirts, not downtown. “Party transportation,” including multiperson beer bikes, which require passengers to pedal as they drink but come with a sober driver, and “hot-tugs, or floating hot tubs,” will be limited, as will those annoying Segway tours. And officials will crack down on kitschy tourist shops that sell substandard, shrink-wrapped cheese and Nutella products. These stern measures are overdue: Amsterdam has only 850,000 residents but hosts some 18 million visitors a year, and that number is expected to shoot up to 25 million by 2025. The city used to be able to cap tourism by limiting hotel construction, but the rise of Airbnb has turned every apartment into a potential guesthouse. That’s why the new restrictions will also slash allowed sublet days through Airbnb-like services from 60 to 30 a year, and down to zero in some neighborhoods. Amsterdam needs to be “a livable city” first and “a tourist destination only second.”