The transfer of the passenger, cruise terminal (PTA) from the city centre by 2035 has been announced by Amsterdam City Council.
The number of cruise ships allowed to dock at Amsterdam’s passenger terminal will also be almost halved from 190 to a maximum of 100 by 2026, according to an announcement yesterday.
The council said Rotterdam can accept more than 40 ships that will no longer be allowed to dock in Amsterdam from 2026.
Ships will also have to use shore power at the Amsterdam terminal from 2027.
Amsterdam City Council said: “With these measures, the city is implementing the city council’s wish to put an end to the Amsterdam cruise terminal. The cruise ban is also part of a broad package of measures to limit tourism growth and combat nuisance,” the city council of the Dutch capital said.
Councillor, Hester van Buren, said: “The city council wants a viable, clean and sustainable city. Sea cruising is a polluting form of tourism and contributes to increased congestion and emissions in the city. By restricting sea cruising, requiring shore power and aiming to move the (PTA) from its current location by 2035, the city council is responsibly implementing its recommendation to stop sea cruising. With these balanced measures, the council is trying to meet what is reasonable and acceptable to all parties.”
However, the council conceded that the restriction would reduce spending by cruise passengers and shipping companies in the city, “primarily due to less consumer spending by tourists, for example on museums, dining, shopping and tours, but also due to less fuel consumption.”
He added: “For the city this means less revenue because of lower tourism tax collected and because of a lower dividend payment as a shareholder of the port authority. The financial implications of the decision will be included in the next budget memo. No consequences of this decision are yet expected in the 2025 budget.”
A spokesperson for the Cruise Lines International Association – CLIA, said the announcement is “an excellent example of the cruise industry’s long-standing partnership with the Port of Amsterdam and the direct result of discussions between us on the relocation of the (PTA) outside the city centre, which started in 2016.”
He said that Amsterdam is and will remain a popular cruise destination and that cruise tourism will continue to generate significant economic benefits for the city, amounting to around €105 million per year. “This economic contribution is particularly significant considering that of the more than 21 million visitors to Amsterdam each year, only about 1% arrive by cruise ship,” he added.
