“Stay away”. An advertising campaign that is an order: “Stay away”. The addressees of the singular appeal are young British men, aged between 18 and 35, “invited” not to travel to Amsterdam if their intent is exclusively to exceed with alcohol and drugs. It is precisely them that the administration of the Dutch city is addressing, committed to shaking off the image of the European capital of sex and drugs. An ad hoc online advertising campaign (part of the Visitors Economy Vision 2035) which is already causing a lot of discussion. “Visitors are still welcome, but not if they misbehave and cause a nuisance. So we as a city say: rather not, stay away,” said councilor Mbarki, who is in charge of economic affairs to keep the city livable.
The messages
Thanks to the affordable cost of air travel (50 pounds for a return flight), there are many British travel agencies that organize weekends in Amsterdam complete with canal cruises with unlimited alcohol, “steak and strip” evenings and tours of pub in the red light district. With bad tolerance of the Dutch citizens forced to witness scenes of drunken Englishmen urinating in public, vomiting in the canals, stripping naked and causing fights. “Potentially annoying visitors from the Netherlands and other EU countries will also add up over the course of the year,” adds the municipality. “Visitors who want to come to Amsterdam to let loose get ready online by carrying out certain types of searches”, writes the website of the municipality: “Bachelorette party Amsterdam, cheap hotels Amsterdam and pub crawl Amsterdam”. Those who carry out these searches will find warning messages on the risks and consequences of anti-social behavior: from fines to arrest up to hospitalization and damage to health. The message that the Dutch authorities have sent to them in particular is clear: a long weekend in Amsterdam can create the wrong kind of memories and could lead to consequences to be regretted.
Source-tg24.sky.it