Amsterdam launch ‘stay away’ campaign aimed at young men from the UK

Amsterdam's city council is warning young male tourists from the UK to "stay away", with a new campaign aimed at 18-25 year-olds wanting a "messy weekend" in the city.

Aiming to stop nuisance behaviour within the capital, the ad campaign created by the Dutch city council is part of efforts to move away from it's reputation as a hub of sex and drug tourism.

An ad created as part of the campaign shows intoxicated men staggering around the streets of the city, highlighting that they could be fined €140 and consequently a criminal record for "drunk and disorderly behaviour."

Read this next: Amsterdam is testing a "nightlife safe space" for the LGBTQ+ community

Ads for "stay away" will be triggered once a person from Britain searches on the internet for terms such as: “stag party Amsterdam”, “cheap hotel Amsterdam” and “pub crawl Amsterdam" according to BBC News.

Amsterdam - with its population of 883,000 people, welcomes around 20 million tourists a year, one million of which are from Britain.

Due to over-tourism, the local council has introduced billboards displaying images of residents with the text: "We Live Here" and is making plans to remove the red light district's distinctive neon-lit windows to a new "erotic zone" — away from the residential area of the city.

Sofyan Mbarki, Deputy Mayor for Economic Affairs and the Inner City has told The Guardian: “Visitors are still welcome, but not if they misbehave and cause nuisance. As a city, we are saying — we’d rather not have this, so stay away.”

The campaign will start targeting in Britain before expanding to other countries as Amsterdam hopes to move on from its “sex and drugs” reputation.

Watch the ‘stay away’ campaign video below.

Becky Buckle is Mixmag's Video and Editorial Assistant, follow her on Twitter