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6/2 Zuideramstel opens new office on Sabbath

5/2 The truth about integration

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2/2 Johnnie Walker avoids taxes in Amsterdam

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31/1 Wooden rowing boats to disappear from Amstel

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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

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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

2008 Archive

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OPINION

Cargo tram could be tourist attraction

14 mei 2007 - Should Amsterdam do something about ‘touristic ghettoization’? Some thoughts from an outsider living in Prague, a city burdened by tourism.

Tourism as it exists today needs to change drastically. This means flying gets replaced by trains (or clean watercraft), or by nothing. I would love to see an advert for Amsterdam which goes something like ‘Please visit, but by train... unless you want to get wet’ and then mentioning sea-level rise. But I am not holding my breath for this. Of course it is not just about transport alternatives: people should dwell, not just visit.

Prague as is also over-run by tourists in the centre and even some of the tourists don't like it. I agree of course that a mix of people is good, rather than a kind of Bohemian Disneyland in our case. Or a ‘shopping mall with canals’, as someone once described Amsterdam.

One thing which is receiving some marketing efforts of late is the industrial and technical heritage of Prague. In regards to Amsterdam, European trams tend to be a very attractive thing for tourists - and the huge recent increase in public transport ridership in USA is largely a result of new light rail and streetcar schemes - so I think once the cargo tram programme is underway it could be very interesting for many.

Another example is a programme of Czech Tourism and the Ministry for Local Development which encourages tourism to areas other than the capital - its website kudyznudy.cz(‘escape from boredom’) is in Czech - but one can tell that Prague itself is de-emphasized.

Schiphol is a monster of a global warming generator, but maybe there can be outreach here - and also on planes arriving - which mentions the bicycle bell thing. For example, a short film shown on airplanes and in the airport - and train stations and possibly trains, though it seems many arriving this way will tend to be more aware of cycling as transport - which discusses the bell in regards to safety and also as a symbol of Dutch cycling culture.

Ideally, the mayor would be the star of it. The film could start with him ringing a bell to make some pedestrian tourists aware of his presence and then at the end some tourists would do the same to him.

Todd Edelman
Director, Green Idea Factory

Illustration: Škoda 14 tram in Prague (photo Wikipedia) Nb. this is not a cargo tram!

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