Guided tours will be prohibited from entering the Red Light District starting next year. Tourists are attracted to the Red Light District like bees to honey. This has lead to people behaving inappropriately and tipping the social scales toward lawlessness. 

Alderman Udo Kock claims the change in law is “because it is not respectful towards sex workers”. Sex workers should not be a tourist attraction, the idea of a guided tour passing through their work-place is demeaning. All guided tours will be prohibited in the Red Light District as of January 1st, 2020.

Guided Tours and the Red Light District

Guided tours outside the Red Light District will continue if they meet quality standards. The municipality will impose a 0.66 cent “entertainment tax” on all tours. The maximum number of people allowed in a single group tour will be reduced from 20 to 15. Absolutely no tour group will be allowed into the Red Light District. If one tour group disobeys this law the municipality fears a “suction effect” leading other groups to overlook the law as well.

Unwanted photography in the Red Light District

The change in these laws is to hopefully create a better work environment for sex workers. The workers have complained that large groups of tourists are rude and repeatedly take explicit photos, which is prohibited.

Taking photos in the Red Light District is prohibited but hard to enforce. Alderman Udo Kock has decided that reducing the number of people allowed in a tour and prohibiting them from entering the Red Light District completely will change things. Alderman Udo Kock has said that it is ‘no longer of this time to see sex workers as a tourist attraction’.

The Red Light district has had difficulties with tourism in the past, do you think this law will change behaviour in the area? Leave a comment on our Facebook page!