Amsterdam City Council's decision to impose an €8 tax only on cruise ship passengers visiting the city has led to a 40% drop in the number of cruise ship calls in the city, as revealed at the International Cruise Summit 2019.
MSC Cruises, Cunard, P&O Cruises, and CMV canceled their Amsterdam calls earlier this year when this measure was announced. Dick de Graaf, Director of Passenger Terminal Amsterdam, pointed out that cruise passengers represent less than 1% of the city's tourists, but that despite this, they are singled out by local newspapers as one of the causes of overtourism. De Graaf calls for effective collaboration between city authorities and cruise lines.
Sander Groothuis, Director of Port Operations at Carnival UK, said, “Cruise lines have been seen as an easy target. The authorities know how many people arrive on each ship, but what about all the people who arrive by other means of transport? Nobody is standing at the train station saying, 'Welcome to Amsterdam, can you give me €20?' This is what angers us sometimes; they have opted for the easiest option.”.
Alessandro Carollo, Director of Port Services for Royal Caribbean Cruises, said that no one helps local authorities with mass tourism like the cruise industry, because they know two years in advance how many ships and people will arrive and when they will leave. “No other type of tourism can promise or facilitate such a wide planning window as we can, so it’s a huge help for destinations,” he said.
