Amsterdam’s mayor is considering banning tourists from the renown cannabis coffee shops in attempts to resolve overtourism and increase the quality of life in the city’s red-light district. 

An August 2019 survey of tourists, commissioned by Mayor Femke Halsema, indicated that 57% of the respondents chose to visit Amsterdam to experience a cannabis cafe.

34% of the survey’s respondents stated they’d visit Amsterdam less frequently if they weren’t able to visit coffee shops, and 11% said they wouldn’t come at all.

Beginning in April 1, 2020, new measures will be implemented to regulate group tours of the area, preventing tour groups from passing the red light windows, touring past 10 p.m. and lingering in “places that are sensitive to pressure” — such as narrow bridges, or entryways.