Passenger Terminal Amsterdam has come out to clear the air following yesterday’s news reports on the city moving to ban cruises from calling at the central terminal: it is business as usual.
News reports emerged July 21 evening across mainstream and trade media that the Amsterdam’s city council had approved a proposal banning cruise ships as part of the city’s latest move to clamp down on over-tourism.
A spokesperson for Amsterdam deputy mayor Hester van Buren, who has responsibility for the city’s port, told the media that discussions are now underway on how to implement this decision.
Ilana Rooderkerk, the local leader of the socially progressive D66 party, which introduced the motion, said “polluting cruise is not in line with Amsterdam’s sustainable ambitions” and claimed that cruise ships run against the city’s “task of combating mass tourism”.
According to a BBC news report, Rooderkerk recently compared cruise tourists to a type of “plague of locusts” descending all at once on the city.
In response to the city council’s statements, Passenger Terminal Amsterdam has issued its own. It said: “We have taken note of the council’s call that they do not see any room for sea cruises in the city of the future at the current location. There is no administrative response or proposal yet on how to address this call. There is certainly NOT an immediate closure of the terminal. We continue our business as usual.”
A spokesperson from Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) also told TTG Asia that despite the news reports, cruises have not been banned from Amsterdam.
“The port and Passenger Terminal Amsterdam have already pledged to undertake investments worth millions of euros in port infrastructure and shoreside electricity for the long-term. There have been discussions on its relocation outside the city centre which started back in 2016 and which are still ongoing,” said the CLIA spokesperson.
The CLIA spokesperson added: “We are working with the authorities to accommodate the views expressed by Council members while continuing to support the communities that benefit from cruise tourism. Of the more than 21 million visitors that Amsterdam receives each year, around one per cent arrive by cruise ship, with cruise tourism contributing around 105 million euros to the city annually.”
