Amsterdam To Move Red Light District To A Purpose-Built Center
Due to over-tourism in the city, officials in Amsterdam are making sweeping changes, including moving the Red Light District.
Amsterdam is a fascinating city, with its beautiful architecture lining its canals and a variety of excellent museums and art galleries. However, the average visitor to the Dutch city heads there to buy cannabis at the coffee shops and to tour the famous Red Light District. All of this is set to change in a new reimagining of the city.
Amsterdam Planning To Move The Red Light District
Recently it was reported that Amsterdam’s famous coffee shops would no longer be able to sell cannabis to tourists. Now another major change is being planned. Under proposed new tourism regulations, tourists will no longer be able to enjoy a tour of the brothel windows in the famous Red Light District of the city.
Official Red Light tours in the De Wallen medieval district were banned in April 2020 in an effort to tackle Amsterdam’s over-tourism problem. However, due to the district’s popularity, unofficial tours continued. Now the city is taking things one step further as it plans to close the brothel windows of the Red Light District. The “erotic center” is to be moved outside the city center.
Sex workers have already been told they will be able to move their businesses away from the lanes and alleys of De Wallen and Singel. They will be able to set up shop in a new, purpose-built center, the location of which is still to be determined.
Combating The Rise In “Human Trafficking”
The planned move is not only about what the city terms the hordes of “gawping tourists” in the Red Light District. Amsterdam’s mayor, Femke Halsema said she also wants to combat a “rise in human trafficking by providing a safe environment in which sex workers can run their businesses.”
As noted by the Guardian, when the city first made the proposal, a lobby group called Red Light United pointed out that 90 percent (of 170) of the female sex workers in the city want to continue working in their current location.
Activist and sex worker Foxxy told the Het Parool newspaper at the time that relocating the workspaces is not an option, as the customers would not know where to find the sex workers.
Pompeii’s Historic Antiquarium Museum Reopens With New Artifacts @touristmtravel https://t.co/6YpCAQqe96
— Annemarie @ TMT (@touristmtravel) January 29, 2021
Other Changes Coming In Amsterdam
As previously reported, change is also coming in other areas of the city. This includes tourists soon being barred from Amsterdam’s iconic coffee shops. Famous coffee shops, including Halsema, will have to limit their sales to residents only.
However, Amsterdam is continuing to reimagine itself to deal with the huge influx of tourism. In 2018, nineteen million people visited the city, dwarfing its population of only 850,000. Other plans involve raising tourist tax on rooms this year, as well as more restrictions on renting out Airbnbs in the city. Another option is to put a halt to the new tourist-centric shops popping up all over Amsterdam.
Officials in Amsterdam want to reduce the tourist influx to those who are interested in exploring the museums and art galleries, dining in the restaurants overlooking the canals and many more worthy cultural attractions in the city.
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