[hn_throwaway_99]

> I realize Amsterdam is very wealthy, but feel like we've seen countless times cities discouraging visitors and then surprised when tax revenues drop.

Care to cite some examples? Because I certainly can't think of any.

Sure, tourism can be a double edged sword, but all the cities I can think of that want to limit tourism (e.g. Venice, Barcelona, etc.) don't appear to have had any negative effects from their campaigns to limit tourism. If anything, these cities are trying to keep the "soul" of their cities intact, to keep their appeal that attracted so many tourists in the first place.

[TillE]

Yeah I can't think of a single case where any city deliberately and successfully discouraged tourism to a significant extent.

It's possible to do by like, jacking up hotel taxes 100x, but nobody actually does that. Maybe some little town, I dunno.

[AlotOfReading]

Bhutan (the country) has done it by requiring tourists spend at least $250/day in the country and book through a tour operator. Post-covid they changed things to a flat $200/day tourism tax and eliminating all the other restrictions. They've mitigated a lot of the overtourism issues that have affected their neighbor countries.

[hn_throwaway_99]

Wow, thanks for posting that. Your comment led me to read that Bhutan banned mountaineering in 2003 out of respect for local beliefs. I think that's pretty cool given how rare I think it is for local and national governments to take an approach that aligns with the will of most of their people as opposed to "do what makes the most money, consequences be damned".