What does a quality tourist look like?Hotels and B&Bs may know

Positive tourism, tea and apple cake.Photo: S Boztas

Stephen and Steve Chicurel-Stein go on a birthday trip to Europe. In Amsterdam he has 6 nights and in Vienna he has 9 nights, full of programs that absorb ballet, opera, culture and above all city life.

For the couple, who stay in a traditional bed and breakfast with their owners and their three children, a trip to the Dutch capital is no chance for a weekend fuss. It is to open their eyes.

“Motorcycles are for people who want to risk their lives!” jokes Steven, a licensed real estate agent who lives with her husband in Florida. “When you’re on the bike you can’t see it, but when you’re here you want to see the buildings and the lights. It’s very clear to my eyes why we have Dutch masters The light has not changed.

They may be the sort of ideal tourist that Amsterdam city leaders think of when they speak. Campaign to secure low rent guests “Away”. Additionally, Stephen and Steve are staying in very traditional accommodation. It might be rented out via platforms like Airbnb, but Maarten Bruinsma and his partner Malo Zacar run an old-school bed and breakfast, where they get to know and sometimes even become friends with guests.

Side effects of this kind of tried and tested tourism – a distant world Nuisance Airbnb Allows of Illegal hotel without owner – The experience can be more positive for everyone.

Bruinsma, president of the Association for Bed and Breakfast Owners in Amsterdam, said: hotel industry Responsible hospitality businesses claim to play an important role in promoting positive tourism. This is the message he will bring to the Amsterdam Council this Wednesday, huge fines For vacation rental owners who accidentally break the rules.

small scale

“I remember traveling through Eastern Europe on Eurail in 1990 after high school,” recalls Bruinsma, sipping coffee with his partner and paying guests in the cozy kitchen. “We went through Budapest and didn’t have the structure to accommodate all the new people who wanted to see these cities. You came out of the station and told all these people” You’ll see him holding a sign that says “Room available for rent”.

“If there was no internet and it was just this? It would probably have been better because there are so many hotels and everything is industrialized. This is what I’m missing a little bit: small scale.

His home and bed and breakfast – really BBB. Because there are also bicycles – no space at all for pesky guests.Interiors that have designed spaces of personal feeling for visitors His designer Zakhar is the talk of those discovering new cities on vacation love to share.

“I make a big distinction between people who are here as guests, who are on a cultural journey, and young people in the UK who are here 24 hours a day just to get high,” she says. . “For me, they shouldn’t come. But here’s the reality: there are more tourists like that than nice people.”

Stephen and Steve eat Dutch apple cake, share anecdotes from their trips to Ireland, New Zealand, Venice, Barcelona, ​​Vienna and Hamburg, and share their family history as children of Jewish Holocaust survivors in Germany. and clearly one of the “nice people”. escaped from Amsterdam.

Good tourists don’t need this message. Photo: DutchNews.nl

Peeing in your mailbox?

Hoteliers don’t have the same personal relationship with their guests, but Marco Lemmers, CEO and founder of Conscious Hotels, believes that good management is the key to attracting hospitable guests. We consider hotels to be an important factor.

“The whole hotel is set up here, with foreign companies entering the city, taking money from the city and transferring it all to foreign bank accounts,” he says.

“But from a cultural standpoint, an inclusion standpoint, and an economic standpoint, hotels do a lot. The hotel business is a very open culture. Get your first job, if you are a refugee you are more likely to end up working in a restaurant or hotel Yes, some hotels are closed, not connected and you don’t know your neighbors. It’s not the tourism industry that I support.

Together with Volkshotel, Lloyd Hotel and Hotel V, perform site pointing Exclude hotels that are an integral part of a forward-looking tourism policy, with fire protection, sound insulation, 24-hour reception and insect control policies (of any kind).

“I believe in a kind of tourism that has good temporary citizens. People are part of society, maybe just for a day or a weekend,” he says. Don’t piss from No stag parties Together, you should change your Amsterdam profile.

strict policy

Last week, inner city chief Sofian Mubarki announced a series of policy proposal 18 million overnight visitors are expected in Amsterdam this year to combat tourist nuisance.of scheduleScheduled to be developed in the next few years, the bill will include shortened closing times for bars, clubs and window prostitution in red light districts, a ban on outdoor cannabis smoking in tourist hotspots, and organized pubs. May include patrol bans.

But one factor that some experts believe needs to be addressed is Dutch tourists, day trippers from other cities.Extensive ABN Amuro A briefing by lead author Stef Driessen suggests that increasing the tourist tax on overnight trips would be counterproductive. Overnight travelers, especially business travelers, are more likely to stay outside of Amsterdam (and many already do).

This means lost revenue for the city, but it can’t deal with the nuisance caused by some 20 million visitors who party and leave trash. In Mr Driessen’s view, banning tourists from his coffee shops (enforcing existing national laws) would be more effective.

“It’s not just hotel guests and Amsterdammers who are crowded,” he says. “There is a technical and legal possibility that people from outside the city will pay to maintain the canal, limiting the maximum capacity of some areas with turnstiles. Tourists are also willing to pay for a quiet museum visit, if there is one.

intersection

Amsterdam is currently at a crossroads. Pre-pandemic levels of tourism have returned.mayor of amsterdam Femke Halsema calls it “Januskop”, a statue with two heads, like Janus, the Roman god of migration. “It’s the two sides of tolerance, the paradox of tolerance,” she says.

“People come to Amsterdam for tolerance, but many exhibit behavior that we cannot tolerate. In every way, the city has become too dirty, too criminal.

But at the same time, the city has an annual income of €90 million. Budget hole from 2026 – A hole filled with tourist taxes, parking fees and other income from over 20 million guests.

Amsterdam & Partners, the marketing organization of the City of Amsterdam, will launch a ‘stay away’ campaign in 2023 to encourage unwanted visitors to do so. Director Geerte Ud wants guests to come to support the city’s cultural institutions and institutions. She calls it a “regenerative” visitor economy, using interactive apps and her social media to suggest off-the-beaten-path places.

Make good memories of your trip with our guestbook and gifts.Photo: S Boztas

positive

“We encourage tourists to visit these places that locals hold dear,” she explains. “For example, use public transport and come by train if connections are good. Go to theaters and museums, visit restaurants, bars and shops that locals love and frequent. [are trying to] By proposing offers that meet people’s needs, they entice people into doing insane behavior. “

Back in Bruinsma and Zacar’s kitchen, you’ll find a visitor’s book full of free observations, proudly displaying an American football with your child’s name on it. He was a guest who played with his son for a week, they say. “The day he left, he said he should probably leave it,” Zakhar says. “They gave it to my son.

“I love the feeling that every time you have guests, they are so happy. I am not on vacation, but they are.