New taxes in tourism (3): a village in the Netherlands imposes a US$20 entry fee
Taxing additionally tourists is a way for some destinations to try controlling flows of visitors. After Venice with its €5 to €10 fee to enter its historical core, a village in the Netherlands is ready to launch a similar scheme.
Just a 30-minutes drive by car from Amsterdam, the historic village of Zaanse Schans is world-famous for tourists dreaming of postcard-perfect windmills and brightly painted wooden houses. But the village popularity has become a burden. With more than 2.6 million visitors descending each year on a community of barely 100 residents, local authorities took the radical measure to introduce an entry fee.
From spring 2026, tourists will then be charged €17.50 (about $20) to enter the village. The fee will however include access to the museum and windmills, which currently require separate tickets. Revenue from the new charge will go toward preserving the windmills and improving public facilities such as restrooms.
Residents say the influx of tourists has pushed the village to its limits. “In 2017, we had 1.7 million visitors… this year we’re heading for 2.8 million,” Marieke Verweij, director of the Zaans Museum, told the BBC. “ Visitors don’t realize people actually live here. They walk into gardens, pee in the gardens, knock on doors, take pictures, even use selfie sticks to peek inside homes. There’s no privacy left,” she added.
Some local business owners, however, worry that the new fee could backfire—deterring visitors and hurting sales at the souvenir shops and cafés that depend on tourist traffic. With a cost of US$80 for a family of four, tourists certainly might think twice before making additional purchases…
It’s very rare for a community to take such a measure. They are only three such examples in Europe : the fishing village of Clovelly in Devon, England and the medieval villages of Civita de Bagnoregio and Corenno Plinio in Italy.
But listening to Marieke Verweij, it is easy to understand why locals want to impose this rather steep entry fee. “This is a small place! We just don’t have room for all these people!” she told the BBC.
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