In short: Amsterdam recorded 23.7 million tourist overnight stays in 2025 — a record, and the third year running above the city's own legal cap of 20 million. Visitors now pay Europe's highest tourist tax (12.5% of the room rate), new hotels are effectively banned, and from 2026 the combined tax burden on a hotel room reaches roughly a third of the bill.
Amsterdam is one of Europe's most visited — and most regulated — city destinations. This page collects the key numbers: how many people visit, where they come from, what they pay, and how the city is actively trying to shrink its own tourism industry. All figures come from Statistics Netherlands (CBS), the City of Amsterdam's research office and other primary sources, updated for 2026.
Overnight stays: records despite the cap
Amsterdam counted a record 23.7 million tourist overnight stays in 2025, up roughly 800,000 on the year before, according to city figures reported by NL Times. That followed 22.9 million in 2024 and 22.1 million in 2023 (Onderzoek & Statistiek Amsterdam). The pre-pandemic 2019 level of about 22 million has been left behind.
The remarkable part: since 2021, a citizens'-initiative ordinance ("Tourism in Balance") legally caps overnight stays at 20 million a year. The city has exceeded its own cap every year since 2023 — by nearly 3 million in 2024 — and residents have sued the municipality over it. Forecasts point to ~28 million stays by 2027 if nothing changes.
Who visits Amsterdam?
- Over 9 million guests stayed in Amsterdam accommodation in 2024 — more than any other Dutch city (CBS); about 78% were international.
- The UK is the number-one inbound market by hotel nights, ahead of the US and Germany.
- Day visitors added another 26.7 million trips in 2024, two-thirds of them domestic.
- Average stay has crept up to 2.28 nights (about 2.0 in 2019).
Hotels: high occupancy, capped supply
Amsterdam has just under 500 hotels with roughly 42,000 rooms and 92,000 beds — an all-time high that is now frozen by policy: since April 2024 no new hotel permits are issued; a new hotel may only open if another closes and the bed count does not grow (NPR). The result is scarcity economics: occupancy ran at 75.7% in 2024 and ~78% through 2025, with average daily rates around €185 (STR/CoStar) — among the priciest city hotel markets in Europe.
The tax bill: Europe's highest, and rising
- Tourist tax: 12.5% of the room rate — the highest in Europe (City of Amsterdam).
- Day-tripper tax for cruise passengers: €14.50 per person in 2025, €15 from 2026.
- Tourist-tax revenue: €242.5 million in 2024, budgeted €265.7 million for 2025.
- From January 2026 Dutch VAT on accommodation jumps from 9% to 21% — stacking to a combined tax burden of roughly 33.5% on an Amsterdam hotel room (CMS Law).
- Coalition plans would lift the tourist tax to 16% by 2027 and up to 20% by 2030 if stays do not fall below 20 million.
Cruise: from 190 calls to zero?
Sea-cruise calls are being cut from as many as 190 a year to a maximum of 100 from 2026, with mandatory shore power from 2027 (DutchNews). River cruising — about 1,950 calls in 2024 — is slated to shrink to 1,150. A January 2026 proposal would end sea cruises in the city entirely by 2035, at an estimated revenue loss of €46–103 million.
Getting there and what people see
- Schiphol handled 68.8 million passengers in 2025 (+2.9%), making it the EU's second-busiest airport (Schiphol Group).
- The Rijksmuseum drew 2.3 million visitors in 2025 (Rijksmuseum); the Van Gogh Museum deliberately caps itself at ~1.86 million; the Anne Frank House sees ~1.2 million.
- Peak season runs April–September with July busiest; January–February are the quiet months.
What it means for visitors
Amsterdam is deliberately trading volume for value: capped beds, the continent's highest taxes and shrinking cruise capacity all push prices up — and push the experience upmarket. For travellers, the practical takeaways are to book hotels early (capped supply meets record demand), expect roughly a third of the room bill to be tax from 2026, and consider the November–March window, when the city is at its calmest.
