Amsterdam is estimated to attract 30 million tourists by , but what impact do all those visitors have on the lives of locals who have to live there? Sex tourism is big business in Holland: it brings in one billion dollars annually.
But it also has a dark side: the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime lists the Netherlands as the number one destination for human-trafficking victims. Even though prostitution is legal in Holland, organised crime is firmly embedded in the Amsterdam Red Light District. Accounts of forced labor and sexual exploitation through networks of violent pimps and loverboys are grueling. To combat human trafficking, the Dutch government has increased scrutiny and reduced the number of brothels, but the number of tourists visiting the Red Light District keeps on growing, encouraging human trafficking.
Meanwhile, most locals prefer to avoid the area. The number of tourists in Amsterdam has grown and will keep growing massively. More than eight million tourists visit Amsterdam every year. Most tourists prefer a place to stay with a local host, offered by the many online platforms like Airbnb. Tourists on bikes in the centre of Amsterdam not only make the roads in the city centre a lot busier, but also makes them less safe. For reasons locals will never understand, many tourists buy tons of trashy souvenirs and products in Amsterdam.
This has steeply increased the number of shops in the city center selling fake Delfts Blue, weed-related products, smoking accessories and wooden shoes.
.JPG/251px-Sex_theater_in_Amsterdam_(red_light_district).JPG "SEX ESCORT in The Hague")
This comes at the expense of shops offering products and services for locals. That brings me to the next point. Meanwhile, hard drugs are illegal in Holland, and hard-drug dealers include well organised, often violent gangs.
