The city set a limit of 20 million overnight stays; 2025 delivered 23.7 million — another record, 800,000 above 2024, with 9.5 million accommodation guests. Demand is winning the argument with policy.
Amsterdam recorded 23.7 million tourist overnight stays in 2025 — about 800,000 more than 2024 and 3.7 million above the city’s own 20-million livability cap, now breached annually and the subject of a residents’ lawsuit. CBS counts 9.5 million accommodation guests (+2%, the largest increase of any Dutch city), with foreign guests driving all of the national growth (+4.8%) while Dutch guests declined.
The source markets are stable and high-spend: Great Britain, the United States, Germany and France lead; foreign visitors make more than 80% of overnight stays, averaging 2.36 nights. Day visitors add 21.9 million visits on top. Noord-Holland province, 16.3 million guests, is the country’s tourism core.
Policy is the counterweight: the 20-million cap, the hotel one-for-one rule, cruise calls at the main terminal cut to 100 a year from 2026 (and due to leave the centre entirely), and Europe’s highest tourist tax. City statisticians still forecast 23.7–25.1 million overnights for 2026 — growth slowed, not stopped.
The cap fight is your pricing calendar. Every failed attempt to hold the 20-million line — 2025 overshot it by 3.7 million — hardens the tools: Europe’s highest tourist tax (12.5% on the room), cruise calls cut from 190 to 100 a year from 2026, the “Stay Away” campaign aimed at party tourism. The city is deliberately swapping volume for spend per visitor, which means: budget tourists are being priced out by design, and mid-market travellers should treat shoulder months (late October, February–March) as the value window. The mix to know: British, American, German and French guests drive the overnights; the British stag-party segment is the one being legislated away.
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