Amsterdam’s tourist industry brings in big money: The Economist

Amsterdam has the highest number of tourists per resident in a ranking of the world’s most popular cities, but they also bring in more financial benefits for the locals, according to new research by The Economist.

The ranking lists 20 popular destinations, ranging from the Dutch capital to Barcelona and Istanbul, and calculates both the number of tourists and the amount tourism generates per local resident.

Amsterdam comes top of the list with over 10 arrivals per resident, generating spending of €11,000 per local. Next in the ranking is Paris with eight tourists per resident and spending of €9,200.

Milan is in third place with 6.3 tourists per resident, bringing in just €2,600 for every Milanese local.

The gap between high-ranking cities is “surprisingly large”, the Economist said. “Visitors to Amsterdam spent four times as much, on such a basis, as those to Milan. If you cram an unfeasibly large number of tourists into a city, spending per resident rockets. An Amsterdam with fewer tourists would be a poorer city. Overcrowding has some upsides.”

Amsterdam has been grappling with its tourist industry and has set a limit of no more than 20 million overnight stays a year, even though this is regularly broken.

The city has implemented a number of measures, including a halt on the development of new hotels and has imposed one of the highest tourist taxes in the world. The city is also reducing river and ocean going cruise traffic.

The city has also recently launched the second phase of its “stay away” campaign in an effort to cut the number of budget tourists coming to the city to smoke weed and have a good time.

“Over tourism is a worldwide problem, and tourists don’t like it when places are so full either,” said city finance chief Hester van Buren earlier this year. “But we can’t simply put a fence around Amsterdam.”