The following blog will be exploring the sex-work industry within Amsterdam.
This involves any potential contribution the Red-Light District has on the over-tourism of Amsterdam, as well as what the future holds for the district.
(Reyes, 2024)
Although the Red-Light District was not our main research focus, we quickly discovered that it remains a core aspect of discussion on the over-tourism issue that constantly plagues Amsterdam.
Problems Surrounding The Red-Light District
A major reason as to why the Red-Light District is consistently spoken about by those in power is due to the overcrowding issue it brings since visiting the district appears to be a central aspect of a tourist’s trip to Amsterdam (Chapuis, 2017). Typically, a heavily visited tourist hotspot would be deemed as a positive due to the huge amount of money it brings in, however the main issue is down to the type of crowd the Red-Light District tends to attract, specifically on weekends. For instance, in 2019, Amsterdam experienced over 18.9million ‘overnight tourists’ who visit for a couple of days and aim to make use of the relaxed policies on prostitution (USA Today, 2023). To make matters worse these visitors are usually men aged 18-35 who end up getting drunk due to all the surrounding bars. This only further fuels the issue since they end up being tremendously rowdy, often ignoring the fact that people live in and around the Red-Light District. As a result, it is prohibited to consume alcohol or cannabis within the Red-Light District in an attempt to reduce overcrowding. However, one of the tour guides mentioned that this has failed to make a difference since there are a number of bars and coffeeshops in the actual district.
(Reyes, 2024)
The photo above displays a campaign aimed at tourists, in order to remind them that people live here and it it’s not just a holiday destination for visitors to behave inappropriately. These posters can be seen numerous times throughout the Red-Light District.
Time to Go?
Due to the disrespectful behaviour often seen from tourists, particularly in areas such as the Red-Light District, the city have devised a plan aimining to change the landscape of Amsterdam's tourism by 2035. Consequently, the Red-Light District will suffer the most, as there are constant talks about it being moved to an ‘eortic centre' down south. This was really intriguing to learn, as I was unaware of this prior to the fieldwork trip. However, after speaking to a couple of tour guides, they informed us that this has been a gradual thing. For instance, every tour guide mentioned how before covid, the district was a lot busier and was often extremely crowded. In order to combat this, the city has already implemented restrictions that limits the area to close at 3am, which is three hours earlier than previously (USA Today, 2023). Thus, each day it constantly appears more and more likely that the current Red-Light District will be transformed into a shopping district.
References
Brokke, K. (2020) CNN. What it’s like to live in Amsterdam’s red-light district. [Online] available at: https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/living-in-red-light-district-amsterdam-netherlands/index.html[Cover Photo]
Chapuis, A. (2017). Touring the immoral. Affective geographies of visitors to the Amsterdam Red-Light district. Urban studies, 54(3), pp.616-632.
Reyes, J. (2024) Personal Photo.
Reyes, J. (2024) Personal Photo.
USA TODAY (2023) Why Amsterdam wants tourists to ‘stay away’. [Online] available at: https://eu.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2023/03/17/amsterdam-red-light-district-tourist-rules/11488520002/