by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 3:26 PM ET, Tue April 2, 2019
A move by Amsterdam city officials to ban guided tours of the red light district is drawing criticism from the very people the proposed change is designed to protect.
In late March, the European city's deputy mayor, Udo Kock, announced that it is "outdated" to allow tourists to gape at sex workers' windows and view them as an attraction.
City leaders have also said that tours of the district are disrespectful and only add to the significant problem of overtourism in a neighborhood that's made up of narrow side-streets. What's more, by some accounts, as the number of tourists walking through the red-light district grows, the amount of local paying clients decreases and prostitutes lose business.
The first phase of the new policy began Monday night, with tours of the red light district banned from 7 p.m., according to the Associated Press.
Now, however, sex workers are speaking out against the ban.
The sex workers' union, known as Proud, is questioning whether eliminating tours will reduce tourist numbers. The union also says that tour guides actually serve to educate visitors, encouraging them to behave more respectfully toward women in the sex worker industry.
"It could also be that now there are no guides that people just wander into the area themselves and gawk at the women behind the window and take photos because there is no one anymore to inform them how to behave or what the rules of the game are in this area," a sex worker who goes by the name of Velvet and is the advocacy coordinator for Proud, told the Associated Press.
Even some local tour operators are unhappy with the proposed new ban, which will not only impact the red light district but the entire city. A total ban on guided tours is planned to take effect on January 1 as part of a broader effort in Amsterdam to address problems linked to over-tourism.
Bobien van Aalst of the Dutch tour guide association Guidor told the Associated Press that guides won't be able to explain to tourists where Rembrandt van Rijn painted one of his first famous works or where the painter's wife is buried.
"I mean it's like in Paris if you're forbidding (tours) to go to the Arc de Triomphe or the Eiffel Tower," she said.
For his part, Kock acknowledges not everyone is thrilled about the ban but says many are happy to see that the city is working to tackle
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