Amsterdam’s cruise ship terminal has announced it is set to be moved from its current location close to the central station to one of various potential locations.
‘The pressure placed on the city by tourists is too great. We have to get a better grip on the situation and moving the PTA will be unavoidable’ said the city alderman, Kajsa Ollongren.
Ollongren has stated the new port location ‘will be in a westerly direction, such as towards Zaanstad’.
PTA director, Rene Kouwennberg, has stated his disappointment at the news: ‘Cruise ship visits are important for Amsterdam and the fact that the ships can come right into the city is one of the reasons it is so popular among passengers and cruise companies’.
2015 brought 134 large cruise ships to Amsterdam which resulted in the PTA looking for a possible second location in order to cope with future growth.
However, Kouwenberg has furthered that moving the PTA will only have a limited impact on tourist numbers as tourists will want to visit the city centre, despite how they have travelled.
‘Cruise ship passengers account for just 2% of the city’s tourists, and half of them go to other places, such as Volendam’.
Although the main motive for moving the terminal is down to the impact of tourism, the debate about a permanent crossing over the IJ continues. Ollongren, city alderman, has stated that there is growing support for the idea of building a bridge over the waterway, which would actually make the cruise terminal inaccessible.
Our specialist cruise consultant, Jo, has shared her thoughts on the news: ‘It is the perfect port for a mini cruise: you just disembark at your leisure and within just a few minutes you are in the heart of the canals enjoying all that Amsterdam has to offer…’ Read more of Jo’s thoughts on the matter on her blog.
March of this year brought the news that the Greek island of Santorini was imposing a capacity cap on the number of visitors from cruise ships to the island. This was also down to the overwhelming figures of tourists that visit by ship; 2015 alone saw 790,000 cruise passengers visit Santorini.
Do you think the numbers of cruise tourists are getting out of hand? Are you upset about the news that Amsterdam’s conveniently located cruise terminal is being moved? How many times have you cruised to the city before? Leave us all your comments!
