am Isterdam? - Amsterdam in Progress

http://www.amsterdaminprogress.nl/

Amsterdam in Progress (AiP) promotes itself as an unofficial citizens’ "think tank" that develops concrete plans to find a balance between residents, tourists and businesses. They seek common and viable solutions to the problems created by the increasing tourism in Amsterdam. They argue that Amsterdam has joined the group of "overwhelmed cities", as evidenced by press reports and the emergence of citizens’ groups and demonstrations. There has been a surge of anti-tourism sentiments among Amsterdammers, but tourism remains one of the world's fastest-growing industries and the Netherlands is not an exception to this trend. According to Amsterdam in Progress, the number of passengers arriving in Schiphol, will increase from 60 million in 2015 to 110 million in 2050.

“Amsterdam dreigt uit te groeien tot een decor. Een mooi decor, maar bewoners kunnen er geen onderbroek meer kopen."

Translation: "Amsterdam is threatening to grow into a decor: a beautiful decor, but one where residents can no longer buy underwear."

- Stephen Hodes

Quote from an interview for Het Parool (Couzy, 2017)

Amsterdam in Progress is an initiative by Stephen Hodes, who has been working in the tourism sector for several decades. He felt like no-one was doing anything against the touristification-induced erosion of the liveability of the city centre and wanted to act in a constructive way. He started Amsterdam in Progress in 2016 and four other volunteers (Carla Hoffschulte, Nina Van der Weiden, Wouter van der Wolk and Jos Hageman) would soon join him.

Amsterdam in Progress wishes to remain independent and so does not accept funds and donations from other organisations. All its members work on a voluntary basis to avoid lobbying influences. After starting small, Amsterdam in Progress reorganised and made a business plan in the spring of 2017 through which they have aimed to engage all stakeholders in a meaningful dialogue in order to find solutions to manage the tourism outburst. In their business plan, they write that they believe in a liveable city, a "city in balance", where residents, visitors and businesses live, work and recreate with and next to each other. They want to offer an alternative to the one-sided action groups against tourism: "instead of complaining about it and acting against it, let's be constructive and think: what do we want to reach in 2030 and what is the way to get there?" (Jos Hageman). One way they want to achieve their objectives, is by influencing the government and policy.

Jos Hageman stated in an interview on the 29th of November that Amsterdam in Progress wants to act as a “mediator”, bridging all stakeholders to a common platform to seek solutions and starting a constructive dialogue. This was confirmed by Stephen Hodes on the election debate “Amsterdam: the new Venice”, after which he told us he had invited Amsterdam Marketing, tour operators and hoteliers to the debate. The day after the debate, he had set up a meeting with the manager of Touring & Tickets (a tour operator in Amsterdam). Because he believes it to be important to understand their rationality, even though he does not agree with their methods.

Amsterdam in Progress has three basic principles, as quoted and translated from their website (Amsterdam in Progress, 2017):

1+1+1 - a sustainable balance between residents, businesses and visitors, in harmony with the city.
Flexibility - the city is changing quickly and that calls for flexible solutions which can be changed with time.
Freedom & Diversity - two core values for the city, with all that that entails (the advantages and disadvantages).

Three main objectives are mentioned in their 2017 business plan:

Formulating a vision for the desired city in 2030. Describing the (future) challenges with regard to crowds and balance and trying to come up with solutions.
Engaging in conversation with the relevant authorities, organisations and businesses, and formulating solutions with them and for them.
Creating awareness among residents with regard to issues surrounding balance and crowds.

Amsterdam in Progress also hopes to influence policy by the publishment of their voting guide, called the Amsterdam Balanswijzer, for the local elections, which will take place on the 21st of March. This way, people are given a tool to be able to judge the extent to which political parties are concerned with the changes taking place in Amsterdam. As of March 2017, they published brochures on nine different themes on their website: 'codes for holiday rentals', 'investment funds for the neighborhoods', 'liveability', 'cooperation and research', 'on our way to 2030', 'the future now!', an announcement to the 'Amsterdam Balanswijzer', 'cruise tourism reconsidered', 'an integral accommodation policy' and finally the official 'Amsterdam Balanswijzer'.

Amsterdam in Progress consists of a core group of five volunteers who meet at least once a month. They are all involved in the daily activities of the organisation and keep in close contact with their stakeholders (i.e. the city council, residents, ...). In addition, they have a network of 80 to 90 people who can help or give input. However, these people are not considered to be "members" of Amsterdam in Progress. The core group decides on the themes and issues that should be addressed, after which they draw up a proposal and present it. Other participants, experts and interested parties from their network are involved and even invited to further contribute to the proposals. After having consulted the necessary people, the proposals are once again discussed by the core group. At the end of each brochure is a list of names of those who worked on it: Stephen Hodes' name is on every brochure, accompanied by names of different experts each time (depending on the theme). The Amsterdam Balanswijzer was formulated by the five members of the core group of Amsterdam in Progress.

In the beginning of 2017, Amsterdam in Progress formulated its business plan for 2017, in which they describe their objectives, organisation and target group. They also announced the themes and issues that would be discussed in their brochures in 2017, together with two themes for brochures that are planned for 2018. A business plan for 2018 has not yet been formulated.

They have three target groups, the first one being the municipality and political parties. The second one consists of media, partner organisations and the touristic and cultural sector. Finally, the third target group is made up of residents, in particular the residents of the inner city and surrounding districts. In the business plan, Amsterdam in Progress argues that the municipality and political parties are the most important targets, as it is up to them to create the desired regulations, which are necessary to make sure Amsterdam in Progress reaches its long-term goals.

Positionality

Amsterdam in Progress discussed their opinions and views in the brochures on their websites. In its first brochure, Amsterdam in Progress discusses holiday rentals. In recent years, the use of Airbnb and similar platforms for holiday rentals in Amsterdam has increased significantly, which has put the liveability of the city under great pressure. According to Amsterdam in Progress, it has brought about increasing crowds in the city centre which are the cause of nuisance to local residents with their noisy suitcases, parties and waste. The increase in holiday rentals has also had an impact on the housing market, causing rising home prices and less housing opportunities. Houses have become investment objects for financially strong people, as it has become a very profitable business to rent out rooms/apartments/houses to tourists. This sadly leads to a decline in social cohesion. Amsterdam in Progress argues for better enforcement and the tightening of regulations to keep the city liveable. They put forward a fully automated digital registration system, which would allow the municipality to check whether the resident is authorised to rent his/her home and whether rental credit is still available. At the moment, the "rental credit" comprehends 60 days per calendar year, although Amsterdam in Progress suggests that this could be reduced to 45 or 30 days in case the issues still prevail.

The second brochure, discusses a proposal for an investment fund for the neighborhood (IFB). Amsterdam in Progress suggests that every overnight-visitor pays a one-time contribution of 20 euros, which would end up in the investment fund of the city. The investment fund would cover three different types of projects: very large multi-year projects for which money has to be reserved; large projects that require a one-time contribution, and short projects. All projects should be in favour of the residents and contribute to social purposes. Amsterdam in Progress adds that the contributions from the IFB are not intended to replace the work that should be carried out by the municipality.

Amsterdam in Progress departs from the idea that a visitor to Amsterdam finds it normal to pay for parking, the entrance to a museum and a hotel room, but for the time-being, he/she does not pay for the “use” of the city. They base their proposal on the willingness to pay: the higher the “demand” for Amsterdam, the more people are willing to pay for a visit. Following the implementation of the IFB, Amsterdam in Progress suggests further supplementation of the fund with mandatory contributions of businesses and organisations related to the tourist industry and voluntary contributions of every organisation or individual that is concerned with the living quality in the city. In order to avoid any potential disadvantages or problems, the fund should be monitored and evaluated continuously and regulated as necessary.

Amsterdam in Progress discusses liveability in its third brochure which offers a preliminary look at the issue while other aspects of and concerns regarding liveability will be discussed in the upcoming months. They first explain what they mean by “liveability”, which they relate to the use of public space in this particular brochure. The writers argue that Amsterdam has indisputable qualities, such as its liberal and tolerant character, the human dimension and the unique balance in the city centre between residents, businesses and visitors. However, the liveability of the city has come under pressure due to the rapidly growing number of tourists and the subsequent nuisance. Since a further increase in visitors is expected over the following years and decades, while the city centre will not expand to the same extent, future-oriented choices about the design and use of the public space are needed.

This leads Amsterdam in Progress to imagine a public space that is safe, durable and congenial. But achieving this poses several challenges. Some challenges they mention are the crowded pedestrian areas, the busy car traffic, the unsafe and slow entertainment transport (like beer bikes, bicycle taxis, horse carriages and tuk-tuks), the busy and unsafe bike paths, and traffic disruption caused by freight transport, coaches and sightseeing buses. Some solutions they put forward include making the city more pedestrian and bicycle-friendly by broadening pedestrian areas and bike paths, restricting cars from the inner city, prohibiting the infamous beer bikes and investigating the added value of other entertainment transport as well as prohibiting coaches and sightseeing buses from the city center and investing in small-scale, city-friendly public transport networks. One central theme throughout this brochure and the others is the importance of thinking far ahead. They keep in mind the future which they believe, or at least hope, to be a future with a decrease in car-ownership, car sharing services or self-driving vehicles, leading them to put forward the idea of a car-free city center and question investments in more car parks.

In the fourth brochure, Stephen Hodes discusses the improvement of the cooperation between the government, entrepreneurs and educational institutions. He states that residents have finally become aware of the fact that parts of the city are becoming too crowded and that they are starting to take actions. The municipality seems to be too, however slowly, but there has been a deafening silence coming from the (tourist) business community’s side. This is where, according to Stephen Hodes, the balance is disrupted as only a small number of entrepreneurs and businessmen benefit from the large number of visitors/tourist, while a large and growing number of residents is afflicted by it. Jos Hageman backed up this idea in our November interview with him. He told us that we should not take the claims of economic benefits from tourism at face value because, for instance, money earned by many hotels in Amsterdam go abroad if they are part of international chains. Thus, the financial benefits derived from the hospitality industry in Amsterdam, for example, can be overstated.

Stephen Hodes urges the municipality of Amsterdam, as a representative or “voice” of the residents, to introduce a structural “Triple Helix Consultation”, under the direction of an independent chairman. The Triple Helix model is based on the cooperation between three important parties: the government (exercising legislative control), public education (producing of new knowledge) and entrepreneurs (generating economic growth and prosperity). Together, these three parties should search for and investigate potential solutions to secure an optimal balance between the three main target groups in the city - the residents, businesses and visitors - while also maintaining, once again, a balance between the so-called three P’s - profit (economic responsibilities), planet (ecological responsibilities) and people (social responsibilities).

Stephen Hodes addresses the necessity of solid and reliable data, since it is at the basis of well-founded discussions and informed decisions. He argues that the way in which data is collected is not always methodically transparent, and that there exists too little consultation and coordination between the different parties that collect and publish data, leading to it being contradictory and unreliable. Research should be carried out in a structural, rather than an incidental fashion, by independent parties without any interest in a particular outcome. He concludes with the statement: “measuring is knowing”.

The fifth brochure declares Amsterdam in Progress’ vision on how the city of Amsterdam should look in the year 2030. Amsterdam is a “pocket-sized metropolis”, that has been experiencing a steady growth in the number of inhabitants, but above all a growth in the number of visitors. If no measures are taken, the inner city will become a space for tourists only, “as has been happening in Venice”. While change is unavoidable, they hope to introduce a change that does not come at the expense of the liveability and the attractiveness of the city. In order to achieve this, they once again argue for a balance, this time between the society, the government and the market, to ensure that joint efforts are made.

They formulated six values that provide a framework within which policy can be shaped. The first value - “a liveable Amsterdam” - urges to cherish the “pocket-size” and human dimension of Amsterdam, both important traits of the city. Because residents feel like their neighbourhood is “being taken over by ‘others’”, they are “losing their tolerant and hospitable attitude”. They hope to create a resilient and social cohesive city. Secondly, they want Amsterdam to be an inclusive city that acts in the interests of all residents and excludes nobody. The burdens come to lie where they are caused and the revenues are distributed fairly. As a third value, they put forward durability. In 2030, the city uses innovative and clean energy sources and is concerned with responsible energy use, circular economy and good air quality. In the fourth place, they discuss the tolerant climate of Amsterdam. If the city doesn’t want to lose its tolerant character, attention should be paid to the free play of the market and the large visitor flows that results from it. Recently, there has been a call for more law enforcement, which is a consequence of the over-exploitation of the city, however, Amsterdam in Progress argues that this doesn’t tackle the problem at the roots. The freedom of one stops when the freedom of the other is limited: by restricting the free market, the need for enforcement decreases and the freedom of residents and visitors is guaranteed. The fifth value - “an involved Amsterdam” advocates for a central position for the residents and a proactive instead of a reactive policy. In 2030, Amsterdam should be a city with an open and transparent administration, structured in such a way that a continuous dialogue with citizens can take place. Finally, the sixth value they put forward is diversity. A one-sided provision of services will lead to deterioration of the neighborhood, as it is essential for a neighborhood to combine functions such as living, working, recreation, sports and entertainment. Functional “mixing” and diversity leads to lively and attractive neighborhoods, both for residents and visitors.

In the sixth brochure, called “The future now!”, Amsterdam in Progress discusses three developments that demand urgent intervention, the first one being the growing world population. Secondly, the increasing prosperity and world population growth has led to a dramatic increase of the global middle class. Finally, the number of international travelers will double in 20 years: from nearly one billion in 2010 to 1,8 billion in 2030. All this indicates a very strong growth in the number of international tourists arriving in Amsterdam, while the size of the city and its number of inhabitants will experience limited growth. They conclude by saying “the time for action is now!”.

The Amsterdam Balanswijzer is announced in the seventh brochure. This will be further discussed in the discussion of the official Amsterdam Balanswijzer (brochure 10).

“Cruise tourism reconsidered”, the eight brochure, discusses the plans of the municipality of Amsterdam to relocate the Passenger Terminal Amsterdam (PTA), a mooring place for cruise ships. The relocation has been supported by the city council and various political parties have included it in their 2018-2022 programme, since it was mentioned as a measure to reduce the pressure of tourists on the (inner) city. However, Amsterdam in Progress argues that the relocation of the PTA is unlikely to help spread out the tourists and will lead to many more visitors and traffic movements, since more and larger ships will be able to moor at the new location. Economically speaking, the cruise tourist is hardly interesting and does not contribute a lot to the city, and environmentally speaking, cruise ships are highly polluting. Conclusion: “It is better to stop half way than to persevere in an error. It is definitely not too late!”

In the final brochure of 2017, Amsterdam in Progress discusses an integral accommodation policy. On the first of January 2017, an accommodation policy came into force, which only deals with hotels, guesthouses and (youth) hostels. The municipality of Amsterdam put a stop to the building of new hotels in most areas, called the ‘hotel stop’. However, ongoing building projects of new hotels for which permits have already been granted can still be built. This means that around 100 hotels will be added in the coming years, of which 25 will be in the city center. Furthermore, there are several “no, unless…”-zones, where the municipality assesses whether or not the initiative can count on cooperation. Amsterdam in Progress argues for an integral accommodation policy, as they fear a “waterbed effect” whereby increasing regulations on one sector will push people onto other, less-regulated sectors. Pressure on the hotel market leads to an increase of other accommodation markets, like Airbnb. There exists a need for a policy in which all forms of accommodation, such as hotels, holiday rentals, B&B’s and cruise ships, are approached in their entirety, to prevent the waterbed effect between different types of accommodation. An even more ambitious measure would be to implement the policy in all municipalities in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area, as this would prevent the waterbed effect between Amsterdam and the neighboring municipalities.

The tenth, and for now (March 2018) last brochure, is the Amsterdam Balanswijzer (English: Amsterdam Balance Guide), a voting guide that describes the extent to which political parties pay attention to ten different themes/aspects related to balance and offer new and concrete measures. The election programs of fourteen political parties were evaluated in the run-up to the municipal election on the 21st of March. Political parties that did not yet have a definitive program on the 15th of February (the closing date of the evaluation) and parties that scored zero points on every aspect, were not included in the Amsterdam Balanswijzer. The election programs were evaluated on ten aspects:

1. Long-term vision: the party program contains a long-term vision that looks beyond the coming four years regarding balance, liveability and management of crowds and tourism in Amsterdam.

2. Management of number of hotels: the party program focuses on managing the hotel market in the metropolitan region of Amsterdam.

3. Management of holiday rentals: the party program focuses on managing holiday rentals of homes - that means, determining a maximum number of rental days per year and a maximum number of permitted holiday rental addresses per landlord.

4. Diverse range of shops: the party program focuses on a diverse range of shops in Amsterdam - that means, an approach that prevents a monoculture of shops at the neighbourhood level.

5. Diverse range of housing: the party program focuses on a diverse range of housing in Amsterdam - that means, an approach to stimulate the supply of housing for all income groups.

6. Spreading policy: the party program focuses on the geographical spread of visitors to areas outside the city center of Amsterdam.

7. Management of group visitations: the party program focuses on managing group visitations to Amsterdam and the associated use of coaches and the mooring of (river) cruise ships.

8. Management of entertainment transport: the party program focuses on controlling the use of entertainment transport, such as rental bikes, beer bikes, segways, pedicabs and horse carriages.

9. Traffic: the party program focuses on a balance between motorized and non-motorized traffic in Amsterdam, in which circulation/flow, safety and sustainability come first and pedestrians and cyclists get more space and facilities.

10. Active and practicable enforcement: the party program focuses on an active and practicable enforcement of rules regarding balance, liveability and the control of crowds and tourism in Amsterdam.

For every aspect, it was possible to score zero, five or ten points. In total, an election program could maximally receive 100 points. The scoring criteria are as follows:

Zero points: the election program does not pay any attention to the aspect.
Five points: the election program addresses the aspect, but does not propose any new and concrete actions, plans, measures or solutions to tackle the aspect.
Ten points: the election program addresses the aspect and proposes new and concrete actions, plans, measures or solutions to tackle the aspect.

Amsterdam in programs notes that in this particular case, “new” signifies that the current municipal policy is not continued.

The elections programs have been objectively evaluated, which implies that the quality or feasibility of the proposed actions, plans, measures or solutions have not been taken into account. The subjective views of Amsterdam in Progress concerning the content played no role in the evaluation. At the election debate “Amsterdam: the new Venice”, they further informed us on their evaluation method. All elections programs were evaluated individually by the five core members of Amsterdam in Progress, after which the scores were jointly substantiated and discussed. Next, they individually re-evaluated the discussed results once again. After that process, which took three months, they put the final results in the following bar chart:

GroenLinks (English: GreenLeft) received a score of 85 points, the best one out of all political parties. They scored ten points on seven aspects (represented by the upper green part on the bar chart) and five points on the remaining three aspects (represented by the lower yellow part). They were the only ones that scores 5 points on the aspect “long-term vision”. In second place, is the Socialistische Partij (English: Socialist Party), followed by Democraten 66 (English: Democrats 66), Partij van de Arbeid (English: Workers’ Party) and Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie (English: People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy).

Amsterdam in Progress sees the Amsterdam Balanswijzer as a kick-start to put the theme further on the agenda and encourage voters to compare the various party programs with each other. For inspiration, the voter can also visit the website of Amsterdam in Progress for all brochures devoted to the issues of balance and crowds in the city. At the election debate, Stephen Hodes explained to us how they wanted to influence the politicians by informing the voter. Carla Hoffschulte, who joined after the creation process of the Amsterdam Balanswijzer had already been put in motion, admitted that she questioned the methodology, because she feels that the political party with the best score does not match the party that, according to her, offers the best solutions. After the election debate, an article was published about the Amsterdam Balanswijzer, in Het Parool (a popular Dutch newspaper), with the title “Druktehaters moeten bij GroenLinks zijn” (English: “People who hate crowds should vote for GreenLeft”), which shows how they interpreted the “winner” to also be “the best”, while the quality of the elections programs was not evaluated.

One of the themes that was addressed in the Amsterdam Balanswijzer, wasn’t discussed in any of the brochures yet. In 2018, Amsterdam in Progress plans to discuss the topic “spreading” in the brochure “Influencing behavior (spreading policy)”. The concept of a spreading policy has been very popular amongst political parties. The topic was brought up at the election debate and discussed in our conversations and interviews with the stakeholders, which give us insight in the opinions and views of Amsterdam in Progress regarding a spreading policy. Stephen Hodes has also addressed these topics in several interviews with news and media outlets. When it comes to influencing the behaviour of tourists and spreading them geographically, Amsterdam in Progress believes that it is really difficult to do, if not impossible. According to them, the idea of removing the large crowds of tourists from the city center is an “illusion”. They also face the consequences of a spreading policy for other neighbourhoods with apprehension, and argue for more research. Finally, they state that the idea of a “spreading policy” is just an excuse to let the tourism industry continue. Spreading combined with continued growth, is simply spreading out the problem of tourism and overcrowding and therefore, spreading is not a viable solution.

Since May 2017, Amsterdam in Progress has been publishing the brochures described above on their website. At the moment, they have planned the publication of two more brochures. As mentioned before, the first one will be about influencing the behavior of tourists in order to spread them over the city of Amsterdam and the Metropolitan area. It seems that despite Stephen Hodes scepticism regarding the benefits and feasibility of spreading out of tourists, he also seem to regard it as inevitable due to its popularity with policy makes, and so Amsterdam in Progress is preparing a contingency plan. The second brochure will discuss more effective ways to approach law enforcement.

The most buzz was created around their tenth brochure, the “Amsterdam Balanswijzer”. According to their 2017 business plan, the voting guide was supposed to be published in February 2018, but it would only be officially announced at the election debate "Amsterdam: the new Venice" on the 1st of March at Pakhuis De Zwijger. The same night, it was made public on their website. They also sent the Amsterdam Balanswijzer to several news and media outlets which could reproduce it after the official announcement at the debate and publication on the website.

Amsterdam in Progress is also active on Facebook. Their page “Amsterdam in Progress” was created in November 2016, but the first post dates from May 2017. Stephen Hodes, the administrator of the page, posts fairly regularly, almost daily. As of March 17th, the page has 475 likes and 515 followers. Interaction with the readers seems to be limited as mosts posts receive between one to four likes (with some exceptional posts that reach more than ten likes) and once in a while, someone leaves a comment or shares a post. They shared all their brochures once after publication, but except the fifth one (“On our way to 2030!”) - which was liked 21 times and shared 5 times - there was not a lot of response. The majority of the posts are shared articles from Dutch and international newspapers, sometimes provided with some commentary or opinion. Every now and then, Stephen Hodes writes down his own opinion in a (long) text.

Amsterdam in Progress also tries to take part in debates and public events and engage in conversations with all stakeholders including residents, relevant authorities, organisations and businesses to create a common platform and start a constructive dialogue. They also have contact with the municipality which “knows they exist” and “read their posts and proposals”. Jos Hageman also made note of the municipality asking for input of Amsterdam in Progress.

Discourse: connecting threads

There are several subjects Amsterdam in Progress keeps stressing. First of all, the problem revolves around three main stakeholders: the residents, businesses and visitors. Amsterdam in Progress works towards a common goal: achieving “balance” between these three stakeholders. However, the concept of balance is used several times in different contexts. They argue for balance between the government, market and society, and balance between economic, environmental and social responsibilities, both means to achieve, once again, balance between its target groups – the residents, businesses and visitors. Furthermore, several other individuals and organisations have been using the concept of balance, probably having another definition of “balance” in mind. The constantly recurring use of the word “balance”, leaves it at risk of becoming a so-called “buzzword”, and its ambiguous meaning leaves room for broad interpretation.

Secondly, Amsterdam in Progress believes that economic growth must not be an end in itself. They feel like Amsterdam should be more than a “revenue model” or a city that needs to grow as quickly as possible, in order to be able to measure itself with “the big boys”. Contesting the constant emphasis on economic growth, they argue that inclusiveness, durability, tolerance, involvement and diversity should form the foundation for a liveable city, where “growth is not a goal, but a means”. This leads us to a third common subject in the discourse of Amsterdam in Progress: the urgent need for daring, bold and even radical decisions/solutions, since there are no easy solutions, no quick wins. According to them, the municipality should act proactively instead of reactively, and display a long-term vision and coherent policy. In an interview, they showed their disappointment in the municipality and politicians. They critiqued former Alderman Ollongren of using her position as a stepping stone to national politics, instead of truly fighting for a liveable and better city. Furthermore, they mentioned that the head of the largest political party in the city council, D66, is the owner of some restaurants and cafés in the city center, which seems to be no exception. Several politicians are owners of hotels or other catering businesses, which leads Amsterdam in Progress to believe they are more “pro-business”.

Amsterdam in Progress addresses the necessity of solid and reliable data at several occasions, as they believe research is not always carried out in a methodologically transparent and coordinated fashion. Research should be carried out by independent parties, because reliable data lies at the basis of well-founded discussions and informed decisions. Stephen Hodes has mentioned the need for reliable data and research in an interview, as he found that too much researchers based themselves on data provided by Amsterdam Marketing, NBTC (the Dutch bureau for tourism and congresses) and the Amsterdam city index, three promotional or retailers organisations “with a vested interest in certain outcomes” (DutchNews, 2017).

Finally, they mention several times that they want Amsterdam to be a “guiding city” for other places in the world. In their brochure about the distant future (On our way to 2030!), they write down their dream and fantasy for 2030:

“The starting signal for tackling the crowds were the municipal elections of 2018. At first, there was not a lot of attention for the subject. The resident and the voter remained critical, however, and forced the political parties, as it were, to include it in their party programs. Fortunately, after the elections, it appeared that it did not just end with programs, in fact, the plans were actually implemented. And so Amsterdam could develop into a “guiding city” for managing the crowds and monitoring the balance.”

This showcases their optimism, but might signal also their desire to involve themselves further in the decision-making in the near future.