Cocaine or tulips? Can you pass Amsterdam's new quiz for tourists?
Amsterdam, still struggling with the excesses of mass tourism, has created a quiz for arriving tourists to check their knowledge of city rules.
The English-language quiz aims to clarify why visitors are attracted to the Dutch capital. Tulips? Shopping? Waffles? Or perhaps something more unsavoury for locals?
Question by question, the "Amsterdam Rules" quiz makes it clear what is forbidden and how you should behave, with bad choices being built into the multiple-choice answers most questions.
Tell the quiz you want to spend the night in your own car, and you'll be told that this is prohibited and can result in "expensive fines" and high parking fees.
"Would you like a guided tour among sex workers' windows?" the quiz then asks. Choose "yes" and the quiz informs you that guided tours are no longer allowed.
If you then say you want to party until five in the morning, you get another slap on the wrist. "No more partying throughout the night, bars in the old centre of Amsterdam close at 02:00 AM."
What about an organized pub crawl? Also forbidden. Then maybe just a calm stroll around the city with a drink or a spliff in hand? "Bad news," the quiz informs you. Drinking and smoking cannabis in public is forbidden.
"Which famous Dutch products do you want to buy?" continues the quiz. Then you'd better not click on cocaine, which the tests appears to suggest is a famous Dutch product.
Instead try tulips or stroopwafel. Buying drugs on the street is illegal. In addition to the risk of fines, dealers often sell spiked substances, the quiz says.
What happens if you fail the test?
Keep clicking on cocaine, booze-ups and sex-worker tours, and eventually the quiz gets fed up with you. "Too bad... Considering your preferences, Amsterdam may not offer the experience you're looking for," you're told.
Customs police aren't going to ban you from entering the country, but you may go away from the quiz reconsidering your plans for the trip. Things are different if click on tulips and stroopwafel instead of drugs and pub crawls. "Your responsible choices show that you value a positive of experience in Amsterdam."
The interactive quiz follows an online campaign launched last year to discourage young binging tourists, particularly from the UK, from visiting the city.
In recent years the city has announced several municipal officials aimed at making Amsterdam a more liveable city in spite of the massive tourist draw of famous galleries, canal walkways and legal marijuana.
Following a ban on smoking cannabis in the city centre, the red light district is also to be relocated out of the city centre in the near future.
Locals have been complaining about the boozing, shouting and pot smoking over the years. Tourists also attract drug dealers, who in turn create crime, raising the dangers on the streets, the city says.
Every year, some 18 million visitors spend at least one night in the city of 800,000 residents. In addition, there are millions of day visitors.
