Amsterdam has plans to greatly increase its tourist tax in the upcoming years with the intention of better managing the excessive amount of tourists coming to the city, thus improving the quality of residents' lives. A citizen's initiative called Stichting Amsterdam Heeft Een Keuze (Stichting means foundation) estimates that if the city's tourist tax were to go from 12.5% to 32% over the next four years, this could potentially generate an additional 900 million euros. This plan was conceived to help diminish the growing number of tourists that continue to come into the city and provide ways for the city to invest in its long-term urban improvements.
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The city of Amsterdam is continually under pressure from tourism; in fact, last year, the city recorded just under 24 million visitors. The foundation has also taken legal action against the municipality of Amsterdam for failing to comply with its 2021 Tourism in Balance regulation that established a limit of no more than 20 million visitors per year. According to the foundation, this limit intends to protect the neighbourhoods and residents from being overrun because of tourism.
Earlier this week, Amsterdam's government stated to the court that the 20 million cap on overnight stays was not a legally binding commitment but rather an administrative estimate that could not be enforced by residents. However, the citizens' foundation maintains that there needs to be stricter controls on the number of tourists coming into the city and that the balance of residents should be restored.
According to the citizen's initiative, the additional 900 million euros generated from the increased tourist tax could be used to fundamentally change Amsterdam.
Examples include converting thousands of hotel rooms into residential housing and planting one million trees in Amsterdam. The local city council (Gemeente Amsterdam) previously passed the Tourism in Balance regulation in 2021 after over 30,000 residents supported the citizen's initiative.
Even though the current tourist tax rate continues to be 12.
5% until 2026, tourists are alread.
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