Showing posts with label Netherlands. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Netherlands. Show all posts

Saturday 19 May 2018

'Party city' Amsterdam to crack down on tourists


Amsterdam is seeking to contain the flood of tourists swamping the city, with the incoming council proposing a series of tough measures and plans to hike tourism taxes.

Some 18 million tourists visit Amsterdam every year -- more than the entire population of the Netherlands --  and local residents have become increasingly fed-up at the deluge.

The city's picturesque narrow streets and canals now sag year round under the weight of all the visitors, including increasing numbers of raucous and unruly stag and hen parties.

Under a plan "to seek a new balance" put forward by the four parties forming the city's next coalition council, popular activities like beer-bikes and boozy boat trips will be sharply curtailed.
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 "Tourism is part of the international culture of Amsterdam, which we should continue to cherish," the plan says, a copy of which was obtained Thursday by AFP.

But due to "nuisance, crowds and rubbish, some neighborhoods are under extreme pressure."
Amsterdam is first and foremost "a city to live in and to do business," the plan says, adding "it is only secondly a tourist destination."

From 2019 tourist taxes will be hiked to 7.0 percent, while the city will also look at ways to cut back on the number of hotel rooms.

In some swamped neighborhoods a total ban on holiday rentals may be introduced, and plans for a new passenger terminal for large cruise ships will be scrapped.

"We are looking for an alternative location outside of Amsterdam," the plan says.

The city already announced in January that it would impose a new 30-day curb on the renting of private homes via websites like online booking giant Airbnb from next year. And this will be strictly enforced, the parties pledged.

Source - TheJakartaPost

Friday 9 February 2018

#Amsterdam cracks down on illegal holiday home rentals


Amsterdam is booking progress in its fight against illegal holiday rentals, the city said Wednesday, dishing out over four million euros in fines as it seeks to stem a stream of tourists.
"There has been an intensive crackdown on housing fraud over the past year," the Amsterdam council said in a statement.

Some 378 fines were handed out totalling 4.2 million euros ($5.1 million), "the overwhelming majority of these for the illegal rental of holiday apartments," it said.
The news comes as the highest Dutch court, the State Council, upheld stiff fines totalling 168,000 euros for illegal holiday rentals in the capital.

Last month Amsterdam announced it would impose a new 30-day curb on the renting of private homes via websites like online booking giant Airbnb from next year, as it seeks ways to deal with the masses of tourists that flock to the city's canals, museums and famous cannabis-friendly red-light district.

"By enforcing these measures, the city wants to end the illegal use of homes... which can then again be made available on the normal housing market," the council said.
It also hailed agreements with Airbnb which it said remained the largest online rent-a-home provider in Amsterdam.


 The agreements included Airbnb informing its potential hirers over rules and regulations in Amsterdam and that rentals this year may not exceed 60 days.

Airbnb had also blocked 1,770 adverts for home rentals that exceeded the 60-day threshold, the city said.

This week Airbnb praised the "positive results these measures have brought to the Amsterdam community."

But it said it was disappointed that it was one of the few online rent-a-house bushinesses sticking to the rules.

"A year after the agreement between Airbnb and Amsterdam, many other online platforms refuse to follow Airbnb's example," it said.

"Airbnb is helping Amsterdammers to share their homes in a responsible manner and with tourist tax," the company's northern European general manager James McClure said.
"We are disappointed that others are not taking similar steps to help strengthen the city," McClure said in the statement.

In total, Airbnb said it helped Amsterdam residents rake in some 125 million euros in income and contributed some 500 million euros to the capital's economy in 2016.

Source - TheJakartaPost

Thursday 27 July 2017

#Indonesia - Penglipuran: Cleanliness through conservation.

 In order: Rows of neat and tidy houses in Penglipuran traditional village, Bangli, Bali, which has become a tourist attraction teem with local and foreign visitors.

Clean and tidy houses can be found in neat rows in Penglipuran, a traditional village located at an altitude of 700 meters in Kubu sub-district in Bangli, Bali.
Penglipuran was declared one of the world’s cleanest villages in 2016 along with Giethoorn floating village in the Netherlands and Mawlynnong village in India.
Previously in 1995, the village community of Penglipuran also received the Indonesian government’s Kalpataru Award for environmental sustainability for raising and maintaining 75 hectares of bamboo forest as well as preserving its traditional spatial layout and buildings based on ancestral designs.

The village has also been a tourist attraction since 1993. In the last five years, Penglipuran has been one of the most frequently visited tourist destinations in Bali alongside the regions of Ubud, Kuta and Nusa Dua.

Penglipuran is among Bali’s oldest villages, having existed since the 18th century, during the period of the Bangli Kingdom. 

The name of the village is derived from the words pengeling or eling, which means “to remember” and pura, which means “ancestral land.”


 The name Penglipuran, therefore, implies that residents keep the land of their ancestors in mind.

Along with Trunyan village, Penglipuran has been designtated a Bali Aga village, or original Balinese village, for preserving its ancestral traditions.

Visiting Penglipuran is like taking a trip in a time machine back to Bali’s more traditional times.

“Amid the intense forces of modernization, Penglipuran continues to retain its ancestral traditions. I think this has attracted many tourists to our village,” chairman of the Penglipuran Village Tourism Awareness Group, I Nengah Moneng, said.

Moneng revealed that before becoming a tourist destination in 1993, the locals had conducted conservation works through the village’s participation in the settlement and environment reordering project formulated by the Public Works Office in the late 1980s.

The efforts, Moneng said, were meant to preserve the village’s ancestral traditions in the interests of future generations.

In 1990, villagers along with students on rural service assignments, also developed parks by utilizing portions of the village road to the front and side of house yards. 

Tuesday 6 June 2017

THE HIGH RISK OF FACEBOOK

THE HIGH RISK OF FACEBOOK
2 - 14 years old girls murdered after using Social Media / Facebook.
Control your beloved children what the do in their free time.
2 girls (16 and 17 years old ) more missing in Tilburg on the moment.

Both girls Savannah and Romy are find in a canal behind a road.
On the way home from school .  On clearly daylight.

2 suspected young boys already arrested.

Be very careful what your children do online in their free time.



 

Thursday 29 October 2015

Tram line 2 the most beautiful of Amsterdam


If you every day take Tram 2, then maybe it is not so noticeable. But this Amsterdam spree takes you pretty much all the top sights along which is our capital. Put your cell phone away and have a look through the window. Not for nothing did National Geographic Line 2 named one of the best tram rides in the world.

The Amsterdam tram line 2 has been set at December 28 1903 and drives therefore already 112 years by Mokum. The tram runs from the CS via the Dam, Leidsestraat, Willemsparkweg, Koninginneweg, Heemstedestraat and Johan Huizingalaan to the terminus in Nieuw Sloten.

 During your journey you'll see at the Museumplein the Stedelijk Museum, Van Gogh Museum and Rijksmuseum. Then head over to the Leidseplein with all the conviviality of restaurants, theaters and cinemas to by then drive towards the Royal Palace.

 The route from the Leidseplein to the dam goes through the center of Amsterdam; through the narrow Leidsestraat, along the famous Flower Market, on the Spui and you'll pass many historic buildings. And, do not forget, you cross the road all over canals that together form the canal. The endpoint then the CS.

Tram line 2 drives for over a hundred years through Amsterdam.

VIDEO

 The best tram rides according to National Geographic: 

1. Queen Streetcar, Toronto (Canada)
2. George Benson Waterfront Streetcar, Seattle (VS)
3. St. Charles Streetcar Tour, New Orleans (VS)
4. Tram F, San Francisco (VS)
5. Trams van Hong Kong (China)
6. Tram 96, Melbourne (Australië)
7. Tram 2, Boedapest (Hongarije)
8. Tram 68, Berlijn (Duitsland)
9. Tram 2, Amsterdam (Netherlands)
10. Tram 28, Lissabon (Portugal)

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Tuesday 4 June 2013

The Netherlands, Water Land

The Rivers (Rijn, Waal Ijssel) in the Netherlands come to a to high water level.
This is very early in the year.
Personally I lived with me family on the border of the Rijn (Opheusden), and must with the flooding in 1995 move outside the risk zones.
Also all my horses (35), must evacuate in that time.
Hope this not happened again for the citizens.
Evacuation 1995