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Associated Press

Amsterdam’s latest attempt to rein in the nuisance of overtourism by banning guided tours of the city’s red light district has run into opposition from some of the people it is supposed to protect: sex workers.
The female mayor of the Dutch capital has vowed to ban the tours, saying they are disrespectful and contribute to congestion in the narrow streets where scantily-clad sex workers sit behind windows trying to attract customers.

The first step in the new policy was taken on Monday night in the red light district, with tours banned from 7pm.
On a recent Friday night, the problem was clear: tourists bathed in a red glow from the windows and peep shows’ neon lights were packed shoulder to shoulder as they shuffled through the alleys.
But sex worker union Proud questions whether banning tours will reduce tourist numbers and argues that guides educate visitors and encourage them to behave respectfully towards the women.
“It could also be that now there are no guides that people just wander into the area themselves and gawk at the women behind the window and take photos because there is no one any more to inform them how to behave or what the rules of the game are in this area,” said a sex worker who goes by the name of Velvet and is the advocacy coordinator for Proud.
Velvet would not give her real name, saying most sex workers have pseudonym to protect their privacy and safety.

Amsterdam’s Prostitution Information Centre, which is in the same building as Proud, offers its own red light district tours.
The total ban on guided tours, which is due to start on January 1, is the next step in the city’s campaign to reduce the problems associated with overtourism.
Amsterdam prostitutes protest planned shutdown of brothel windows in red-light district
Bobien van Aalst of the Dutch tour guide association Guidor slammed the ban on tours, not just to the red light district but other historic parts of the city. She said it means guides will not be able to explain to tourists where Rembrandt van Rijn painted one of his first famous works or where the painter’s wife is buried.

“I mean it’s like in Paris if you’re forbidding [tours] to go to the Arc de Triomphe or the Eiffel Tower,” she said.
City Hall says more than 1,000 tour groups per week operate around the Old Church Square in the heart of the red light district.
“There’s really overtourism there – too crowded. I mean there were evenings where … residents basically couldn’t leave their homes any more because the alleys were blocked,” said deputy mayor Udo Kock.

People who work in Amsterdam’s sex industry wonder whether there are more tourists or similar numbers are squeezing into a shrinking red light district, as hundreds sex worker windows have been closed to diversify the narrow streets.
Kock acknowledges not everybody is happy, but says many others are pleased the city is tackling the tours.

The red light district is a tourist magnet, especially after dark, with crowds waiting to get into sex shows or visiting the Red Light Secrets Museum of Prostitution, where they can see things from a sex worker’s perspective by sitting on a stool in front of a “window” onto which images are projected of people walking past and peering in.

The museum’s manager, Natascha Flipsen, agrees that guided tours educate visitors not just about the history of the centuries-old area, but also how to treat women who work there with respect.
Plus, she says, tourism is good for business.
For tourists, “this is like the once in a lifetime experience, so they visit the sex work as well of course”, Flipsen said.


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The Netherlands

Sex workers angry about Amsterdam red light district tour ban

Three video's of women posing as sex workers are projected behind three doors at the Red Light Secrets Museum of Prostitution in Amsterdam's red light district, Netherlands, Monday, April 1, 2019. The capital's latest attempt to rein in the nuisance of over-tourism, by banning guided tours of the red light district, has run into opposition from some of the people it is intended to protect, sex workers. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Tourists crowded the narrow canal-side streets in Amsterdam's red light district, Netherlands, Friday evening, March 29, 2019. The Dutch capital plans to ban guided tours of the red light district, saying they are disrespectful and contribute to congestion in the narrow, canal-side streets where scantily-clad sex workers sit behind windows to attract customers.(AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Tourists bathing in a red glow emanating from the windows and peep shows' neon lights are packed shoulder to shoulder as they shuffle through the alleys in Amsterdam's red light district, Netherlands, Friday evening, March 29, 2019. The capital's latest attempt to rein in the nuisance of over-tourism, banning guided tours of the red light district, has run into opposition from some of the people it is intended to protect, the sex workers. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

A sex worker's room is seen in the Red Light Secrets Museum of Prostitution in Amsterdam's red light district, Netherlands, Monday, April 1, 2019. The capital's latest attempt to rein in the nuisance of over-tourism, banning guided tours of the red light district, has run into opposition from some of the people it is intended to protect, sex workers. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

A sex worker who goes by the name of Velvet and who is the advocacy coordinator for sex worker's union Proud talks during an interview in Amsterdam's red light district, Netherlands, Monday, April 1, 2019. Velvet declined to give her real name, saying that because of the stigma attached to sex work, most sex workers use a pseudonym to protect their privacy and safety.(AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Museum manager Natascha Flipsen of the Red Light Secrets Museum of Prostitution, right, is interviewed in front of a video projection portraying people passing the window of a sex worker in Amsterdam's red light district, Netherlands, Monday, April 1, 2019. Flipsen says that guided tours help educate the visitors not just about the history of the centuries-old red light district, but also about how to treat the women who work there with respect.(AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Tourists shuffle shoulder to shoulder through the narrow alleys of Amsterdam’s red light district. Photo: AP

Amsterdam prostitutes protest planned shutdown of brothel windows in red-light district

A prostitute waits for clients behind her window in the red light district of Amsterdam. The government has proposed shutting down some of the brothels in the district. Photo: AFP

Sex workers and sympathizers demonstrate against the closure of window brothels in Amsterdam. Photo: EPA

The demonstrating prostitutes – many masked to hide their identities – waved signs during the protest saying “Don’t save us, save our windows”. Photo: EPA

Amsterdam to ban ‘disrespectful’ tours of its iconic red-light district as councillor says ‘sex workers are not a tourist attraction’

Amsterdam’s red-light district. Photo: Shutterstock

(FILES) This file photo taken on December 6, 2008 shows a prostitute, waiting for clients behind her window in the red light district of Amsterdam. From behind their glass walls, at the bends of dark corridors and dark rooms, sex workers have not waited for the arrival of the world's best science and medicine to become aware of the risk they face by practising the "oldest profession of the world". Emblematic of the Dutch city of Amsterdam, these dens of prostitution come out of the shadows this week while the city hosts the International AIDS Conference from July 23 until July 27, 2018. "When we chose Amsterdam to host the conference, it was with the idea of highlighting the people that are the most vulnerable and exposed to HIV," says Linda-Gail Bekker, President of the International AIDS Society (IAS). / AFP PHOTO / ANOEK DE GROOT

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Women who advertise themselves in windows along the alleyways say people will go there anyway but be less civilised or respectful without guides


Women who advertise themselves in windows along the alleyways say people will go there anyway but be less civilised or respectful without guides.


Tourism

Sex workers angry about Amsterdam red light district tour ban

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Women who advertise themselves in windows along the alleyways say people will go there anyway but be less civilised or respectful without guides

Women who advertise themselves in windows along the alleyways say people will go there anyway but be less civilised or respectful without guides