Amstedam's tourist board has been slammed as "hypocritical" after rolling out yet another campaign aimed to put off "Brits abroad" stag parties from the city.
The "Amsterdam Rules" campaign - only accessible from the UK - comprises a series of questions designed to deter prospective party tourists from visiting the Dutch capital and warns against pub crawls, buying and using drugs, and partying in public late into the night.
One question reads: "Why would you like to visit Amsterdam?" alongside a collection of multiple-choice answers - if users click "stag party", they are met with the following response: "That’s going to be a hassle, it is forbidden to organise stag parties in Amsterdam."
Amsterdam Rules says the "guidelines are in place to create a positive experience for all" and suggests visitors whose "plans don't align with these rules" should consider travelling elsewhere.
The 'Amsterdam Rules' quiz is full of questions designed to catch rowdy tourists out
Flickr/Amsterdam Rules
The survey is full of booby-traps for prospective revellers - if users select "yes" to questions about whether they'd like to smoke cannabis or drink in public, sleep in a car, stay out past 2am, go on a guided tour of the 'Red Light District' or buy drugs from a street dealer, they are handed this answer: "Too bad... Considering your preferences, Amsterdam may not offer the experience you’re looking for."
While Britons are the only ones currently on the receiving end of the off-putting measures, the €125,000 (£105,000) campaign by Amsterdam's tourist board is slated for a roll-out to tourists from France, Germany, Italy and Spain too.
This isn't the first preventative measure that Amsterdam authorities have taken against party tourists; last year, the city's "Stay Away" campaign to "cut down on tourists" following significant concern from residents - as a result, the number of Britons visiting the Netherlands dropped by 22 per cent.
But UK-based tour operators have hit back over the measures - Jon Stainer, creative director at stag planners StagWeb, said: "We respect the right of any destination to try to deter anti-social behaviour, but to target stag parties specifically is lazy stereotyping.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
If Britons slip up on the quiz, they'll be treated to a negative message like the one on the right - but if they pass, they'll be welcomed to the IAmsterdam website
Flickr/Amsterdam Rules
"We send thousands of stags to Amsterdam each year and the vast majority are responsible guys looking for a good time, who pump a lot of money into the local economy.
"The city is well within its right to 'clean up its act', but to benefit off the reputation of being a party destination for years and then criticise those that go is a bit hypocritical."
Callum Booth, who lives in Amsterdam, said the quiz was "another ineffective way" of getting on top of what he said was the city's "serious overtourism problem".
Booth also noted that the Municipality of Amsterdam - the city's authority - has said the six-figure-valued campaign had not yet discouraged the "target group"'s choice of the Dutch capital as a party town.
The survey contains six key 'rules' which seek to discourage 'Lads on tour'-type trips
Amsterdam Rules
"No one planning on coming to the city for a stag do will care that such activities are 'forbidden', much less will spend time doing an online quiz to find that out - surely, there are better ways to dissuade problem visitors than this?", Booth said, according to the Telegraph.
Some have suggested Amsterdam should appeal to 'higher-brow' tourists instead, citing moves by cities like Berlin, Copenhagen and Edinburgh.
Travel PR expert Phil Bloomfield said attempts to reel in big spenders rather than rowdy revellers would become "more commonplace" in the years to come.
He defended the Amsterdam Rules campaign, saying it was "done with a degree of wit and humility" and "acknowledges that the liberalism which made Amsterdam so popular in the first place has become an albatross around its neck".
Bloomfield said: "They’re now holding up their hand and asking - not unreasonably - to move on from the past.
"How it lands with particular visitor cohorts is another matter - I can hear the frothing indignation already starting to bubble - but any destination should have the right to put its residents first."
