Amsterdam to hike tourist tax to 20%, close sea cruise terminal

Amsterdam’s new council administration is planning to increase the tourist tax on overnight stays from 12.5% to 16% next year and then by 1 percentage point at a time to reach 20%, as part of efforts to reduce over-tourism in the Dutch capital.

The increase to 12.5% in 2024 made the tax the fourth highest in the world. The council expects to raise €60 million a year from the tax next year, rising to €75 million in 2030 – money which, officials say, will ensure “visitors pay a fair contribution to the costs the city makes for management, maintenance, enforcement and investment.”

The city’s executive, facing legal action from angry locals about the problems caused by budget tourists in particular, is also looking at ways to tax day trippers to the city, and has pledged to stop promoting the city as a tourist destination.

At the weekend, Dutch News reported on how Amsterdam&Partners, the city’s marketing arm, organised 22 group and 134 individual press trips and other events to the region in 2025, despite pledges to keep tourist overnight stays below 20 million.

Instead, the city plans to “work together with locals, companies and institutes towards a new, more balanced, visitors’ economy.” This will include a licencing system for tourist shops in the inner city.

In addition, the new administration has reiterated plans to close the cruise ship terminal east of the main railway station to stop sea cruise ships visiting the city. As reported earlier, plans to set up a massive “erotic centre” close to the Zuidas business district have also been scrapped.

The aim of the centre, which had been championed by mayor Femke Halsema, was to remove pressure on the inner city red light district and provide a safer place for sex workers.

The coalition agreement makes no mention of earlier suggestions that tourists should be banned from the city’s cannabis cafes, something which PvdA councillors had supported in the past.

The city’s new administration is a combination of GroenLinks and PvdA, now known as PRO, and the liberal party D66.