Amsterdam Mayor: Tourism Must Drop Even If Hospitality Businesses Fail

Amsterdam’s mayor has a clear message for the city’s struggling bars, restaurants and hotels: the tourist crowds have to shrink, even if that means more of you go bust.

In a Sunday interview on local broadcaster AT5, Femke Halsema said cutting the annual influx of visitors is “inevitable” and that the economic damage from less tourism would not outweigh the harm mass tourism does to the city’s livability. She branded tourism’s contribution to Amsterdam’s wealth—around 8 percent—as “overstated” (NL Times).

The city now hosts 23 million visitors a year, and without intervention that could climb to 30 million. Meanwhile, court data shows at least 55 hospitality businesses in Amsterdam have filed for bankruptcy since the start of 2026, and 66 over the past 12 months. Nationally, about 20 percent of hospitality firms say they are having trouble paying their bills, according to Statistics Netherlands.

Halsema’s position comes weeks after she failed to win support in Brussels for tougher rules on renting out primary homes—the kind of accommodation that drives much of the city’s short-stay supply. In September, the European Commission presented its Affordable Housing Act, which gives local authorities a legal basis to restrict commercial short-term rentals and second-home purchases in areas under “housing stress”—defined as places where house prices are at least eight times per capita disposable income and have risen over the past decade. But the act explicitly excludes a host’s primary residence from any restriction, on the grounds that renting out your own home does not take housing off the market. Halsema and her counterparts from Barcelona and Paris had asked for exactly that, plus the right to intervene once tourist rentals damage a neighborhood’s livability. The Commission declined both requests.

Amsterdam’s housing alderman, Zita Pels (wethouder in Dutch), called the proposal’s usefulness “questionable.” MEP Dirk Gotink of the centre-right NSC said: “We don’t need a European law to solve local problems.” The EU proposal doesn’t change anything for Amsterdam’s existing rules, which limit primary-home rentals to 30 nights a year—and in some neighborhoods, just 15 (NL Times).

For internationals living in Amsterdam, this is a mixed bag. If you own your apartment and sometimes rent it out to tourists to make extra cash, the 30-night ceiling stays firmly in place; the EU law won’t loosen that. But the mayor’s broader push to reduce tourist numbers could affect the city’s vibe—fewer crowds, less waste, but also more empty tables at your favorite lunch spot. Halsema acknowledged the pain for individual entrepreneurs, but said the “monoculture” in the city center is undermining the inner city’s vitality. She also mentioned the sheer amount of waste tourism generates.

The EU fight isn’t over—Halsema may continue lobbying for a future revision of the Affordable Housing Act. But for now, the message from City Hall is clear: Amsterdam will manage tourism, even if the hospitality sector has to adapt.