Amsterdam to ban cruise ships from city centre

The city parliament in Amsterdam adopted a motion with a large majority on Thursday evening to ban cruise ships from the city.
The ban is a further measure to combat mass tourism and increasing air pollution.
The IJ terminal at Amsterdam's waterfront, near the main train station, will now have to move following the decision.
"The polluting cruise ships don't merge with the sustainable goals of our city," the leftist-liberal politician Ilana Rooderkerk said.
"It's time to take action, the climate won't wait," she continued.
A study by the research institute CE Delft found that one cruise ship emits as much pollution in the port of Amsterdam in one day as 31,000 lorries on the city motorway.
The city's ruling party D66 also pointed to the example of Venice that has banned large cruise ships since 2021. A recently published study showed that since then the emissions of pollutants have fallen by 80%.
This decision does not come as a surprise since initial talks began in 2016.
How quickly this change will be implemented remains open since a new terminal outside the city has to be built.
Every year some 20 million tourists visit the city with about 800,000 inhabitants, while most of them crowd the UNESCO World Heritage Site's historic centre ringed with canals.
The some 300,000 cruise ship passengers are a relatively low proportion of the total, but with the ban the city wants to send a signal.