Zaanse Schans, the Netherlands | Planning to Establish a €17.50 Entry Fee to Enter the Village

Zaanse Schans, a picturesque and suggestive neighbourhood in the Dutch town of Zaandam, just 30 minutes from Amsterdam, highlighted by distinctive brightly, painted wooden houses that recreate an 18th/19th - century centre and historic windmills is planning to establish a €17.50 entry fee to enter the village.

Taxing additionally tourists is generally a way for governments to generate revenue for the consolidate fund but is also a hypothecated levy used to address the environmental and sustainable impacts of tourism, to mitigate the increased demand on infrastructure and public service, to ensure that the tax burden is split equitably, and try controlling flows of visitors.

After Venice with its €5 to €10 fee to enter its historical core also Zaanse Schans is ready to launch a similar scheme, because 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 per person, approximately $20 to enter the village. The fee will however include access to the museums and windmills, authentic historical and cultural icons of Zaanse Schans, which currently require separate tickets.

Revenue from the new charge will go toward improving public facilities such as restrooms and preserving the local windmills such as De Huisman, De Kat, De Zoeker, Het Jonge Schaap, and De Boute, emblematic symbols of Dutch culture, primarily used for water management to drain low - lying land from the Middle Ages and later for industrial purposes like sawing wood and grinding grain.

Residents say the influx of tourists has pushed the village to its limits and the Director of the Zaans Museum, Marieke Verweij told the BBC that in 2017, the village welcomed 1.7 million visitors and this year is heading for 2.8 million.

The Museum Director stated that the visitors don’t realize people actually live here. They walk into gardens, knock on doors, take pictures, even use selfie sticks to peak inside holes, and there is no privacy left.

Listening the Director of the Zaans Museum is easy to understand why locals want to impose this rather steep entry fee, and the official added that the village is a small place and it has not rooms to host this big number of tourists.

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 and with a cost of US$80 for a family of four, tourists certainly might think twice before making additional purchases.

It’s verry rare for a community to take such as a measure. They are only three such examples in Europe are Clovelly, a picturesque fishing village, steeped in maritime atmosphere and history located in the Torridge district of Devon, England, UK, and the medieval village of Civita de Bagnoregio, a scenic hilltop village in central Italy in the province of Viterbo in the Lazio region, and Corenno Plinio, a quaint medieval village in the Italian region of Lombardy set along the idyllic Lake Como.

Link 

https://www.travelmole.com/news/taxes-tourism-village-netherlands/