The vote is in, but cruises to Amsterdam are not yet out: After Amsterdam’s City Council voted in favor of banning cruise ships from the city center on July 20, the future of voyages docking in the heart of Amsterdam still remains unclear.
The cruise ship ban was proposed to address ongoing concerns about pollution and over-tourism in Amsterdam. If enacted, the legislation would move the Dutch capital’s cruise terminal outside the city and no longer allow ships to dock in the central district. A similar ban was enacted in Venice in 2021 due to similar concerns.
Although the council vote approved the ban, for now, it is only a recommendation for action. “There is no immediate closing of the terminal,” Dick de Graaff, director of the Amsterdam cruise port, told the AP after the vote last week. “The council’s call is to relocate the terminal—and we await a follow up from the alderman on investigations.”
Industry group CLIA has clarified that cruise ships are currently still being welcomed to the city, and upcoming cruises with scheduled stops in Amsterdam are still allowed to port there.
Amsterdam is a popular port of call for both ocean and river voyages. And like many European destinations this year, it has seen a significant influx of tourist arrivals. Nipping the cruise industry is one attempt to manage this “plague” of “flash-visits,” as one local politician phrased it. In coming years, the amount of cruise passengers visiting Amsterdam are projected to only increase: For 2023, the CPA has a predicted influx of around 300,000 passengers.
When it comes to making its tourism industry more sustainable, Amsterdam has ambitious goals. In addition to targeting the cruise industry, the city has also set limits on aviation, reducing the annual number of flights allowed to land at Schiphol airport by 40,000 flights per year.
For its part, the cruise industry is offering potential solutions to help ease the environmental impacts of the ships, like upgrading the current Amsterdam port with shore power to cut the amount of pollution emitted while vessels are docked, according to CLIA’s statement. Such efforts would likely be actioned through multiple phases over the next few years.
The discussions between the local government, Amsterdam port, and cruise industry are ongoing, and the next steps for the proposed ban have yet to be released.
