The COVID-19 pandemic did not only effect people, but other things as well. All the industries, businesses, and organization, whether they were educational, corporate, food, fashion, or startups, were hit by the pandemic. However, there was one industry where the effects were more obvious than the other. The travel, hospitality, and tourism industry. With all the travel restrictions and ban on international flights, all the borders of the countries were closed for outsiders. Even locals were not allowed to travel outside their residential area, let alone in another city. This meant that for months, the restaurants and hotels had no customers and hence no source of revenue.
And just like the rest of the world, Private tour Amsterdam; the beautiful, romantic, and charming capital of Netherlands, was no different. Because of the lockdown the number of tourists in Amsterdam wen to zero. And it might not have made much difference when it comes to other countries and cities, but in the case of Amsterdam, it’s significant.
Amsterdam, might be the few cities of the world the number of tourists present in the city is always more than the number of its residents. In 2019 alone, approximately 19 million people visited Amsterdam. So when, the tourists stopped coming, everyone noticed a huge difference in the amount of people that were seen outside. The citizens themselves, being locked up inside their homes did not help much either.
“This is busy,” said a local design company owner Tim Spekkens, pointing at the two to three people passing by. “In the last few weeks, nobody has been around here.”
According to the statistics, the average rate of occupancy for hotels dropped by more than 50% in Amsterdam. The drop was caused by not only because no more bookings were being made, but also because of the cancellation of previous reservations and bookings.
However, there is always some positive side to things. And the absence of tourists in the city was also beneficial in some ways for the residents. As mentioned before, that any moment, on average there are more tourists in Amsterdam then there are local residents. And this is something that is happening for quite a few years now. This overload of tourists made the local residents highly uncomfortable as they felt alienated in their own city. All the places in the city were always overcrowded and the all the trash left behind by the tourists was damaging the beauty and the charm of the city.
Now that because of the pandemic, this issue has become more highlighted, the authorities are trying to find the balance between maintaining the calmness and peace of the city while also opening it up for the tourists.
“The aim is to create a visitor economy that doesn’t harm the liveability of our city, and that takes into account the needs of residents and locals,” said Heleen Jansen who works as the Corporate Communications Coordinator at the marketing agency of the city.
According to The Guardian;
“most hotel groups, tour operators and national tourism authorities – whatever their stated commitment to sustainable tourism – had continue to prioritize the economies of scale that inevitably lead to more tourists paying less money and heaping more pressure on those same assets.”