Amsterdam has taken the first step toward banning large cruise ships as part of broader plans to reduce mass tourism and pollution, officials said on Friday, Reuters reported.

Once implemented, the measures approved by the city council will bring the Dutch capital in line with other major European cities, including Barcelona, ​​Dubrovnik and Venice, which have already reduced the number of cruise ships or are considering doing so.

The council approved the proposed ban on Thursday. “The motivation … was to reduce the number of tourists and also for environmental reasons,” said city spokesman Wouter Moll.

Amsterdam has to work out the details and it is not yet clear when the measures will be implemented, said Dick de Graaff, managing director of Passenger Terminal Amsterdam. In 2023, the city is expected to receive 114 cruise ships with a total of almost 300,000 passengers.

“We have taken note of the council’s submission that they do not see a place for cruise ships in the city of the future in the current location,” de Graaff said.

“Certainly there is no immediate ban on the movement of vessels, let alone an immediate closure of the terminal.”

The city is actively trying to limit the number of tourists, who number in the millions a year, mainly by discouraging sex tourism and banning drug use in the Red Quarter.

Peter van Zaanen, a 68-year-old resident of Amsterdam, believes that a ban on cruise ships in the city is inevitable at some point. “We’re just overrun with tourists, and that’s not what you want in the city you live in,” he said.

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