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11/1 Jurists want to stay in Oudemanhuispoort

8/2 Mayor’s portrait

8/2 Websites for social cohesion

7/2 Spreading tourism proceeds with difficulty

7/2 GroenLinks on districts: Be a man

6/2 Zuideramstel opens new office on Sabbath

5/2 The truth about integration

4/2 Wilders has little support on Amsterdam

3/2 Elite involved in neighbourhood

2/2 Johnnie Walker avoids taxes in Amsterdam

1/2 Rotterdam to tinker with district councils as well

31/1 Wooden rowing boats to disappear from Amstel

31/1 ZeeburgTV launched

27/1 Privacy activists to mess up loyalty card system

27/1 A few were still coughing, but that was an act

27/1 Chrisis in de Baarsjes

26/1 Youth have positive view of districts

24/1 Action groups call for Carmel and Jaffa boycott

24/1 PvdA members dismiss plan for districts

23/1 KLM takes on crisis with new uniform

23/1 District office not squatted

21/1 Merge districts

20/1 Closing squat bar Vrankrijk not necessary

20/1 Cleaners welcome new Schiphol director

18/1 Palestine at the Jewish Historical Museum

18/1 What is the right size for a district?

17/1 PvdA Oost against fewer districts

16/1 Committee: 7 districts by 2010

15/1 Soldiers may attend Afghanistan debate after all

15/1 Bait bike leads to arrest

14/1 Youth for Christ to republish vacancies

13/1 Paintings of the Zuidas

13/1 New Youth for Christ contoversy

11/1 Social cohesion initiative raises eyebrows

10/1 Fewer districts in 2010

10/1 Zuidas: People feel that we are losers

9/1 Fun on the ice - but not for all

9/1 Supermarket coupon fraud thwarted

9/1 I Amsterdam must remain exclusive

8/1 Use term Apartheid in every discussion

8/1 No city kiosk in Amsterdam yet

7/1 Snow

7/1 Fatima Elatik to run Zeeburg

7/1 Municipal managers to return to shop floor

4/1 Police: take photo of strange people

3/1 Gaza protest criticises politicians

1/1 Thousands to protest against attacks on Gaza

1/1 Mustapha Laboui leaves district council

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Spreading tourism proceeds with difficulty

7 February 2009 – Residents of the inner city have sort of had it with the tourists. The municipality wants to spread tourism over the districts, but implementation is sluggish. Marketing, new museums and an amphibian connection with Noord should change this.

The municipality will invest almost 2 million euro in these measures, according to a policy paper to be discussed by the council on Wednesday. The paper states that there is support for tourism among Amsterdammers, but that this is declining especially in the inner city. Tourists too increasingly complain about the city being crowded.

Since 2002, the municipality has a policy to spread tourism, but implementation is sluggish. For example, the paper concludes that “in terms of policy, the Eastern inner city is set to increase tourism, but touristic development has not really gotten off the ground because the neighbourhood is little known and because of the limited availability of suitable and available hotel locations”.

The districts Oud-Zuid (de Pijp) and Oud-West have developed policies to attract tourists, but they have failed to implement the proposed measures.

The municipality now wants to focus on marketing a number of districts. Oost should present itself as green museum quarter; Noord as creative city; Westerpark as ‘Kulturbrauerei’, the eastern docklands as ‘Amsterdam Docklands’, de Pijp as ‘Quartier Latin’ and Oud-West as ‘Notting Hill’. The city intends to invite journalists over and write to city guides.

New museums are to make the districts more attractive. Noord will get the Film Museum, the eastern inner city a children’s department of the Resistance Museum and in Westerpark, an Amsterdam School Museum will open after 2014, when the current school leaves het Schip (photo).

The municipality will further subsidise the construction of a ramp in order to facilitate the operation of an amphibian bus connection with Noord by the company Splashtours.

Photo: Rory Hyde

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