Zaanse Schans Charges €17.50 to Look at Windmills-Tourism Is Dead!

Hello everyone. Let’s talk about the latest installment of “Death by a Thousand Cuts” in the tourism industry. This time it comes from the quaint postcard-perfect windmill wonderland of Zaanse Schans in the Netherlands – where the mayor and friends have apparently decided that your flight ticket, your overpriced hotel, and your overpriced airport sandwich aren’t enough. Nope. Now they want to slap you with a €17.50 bill just for daring to look at their historical scenery. Because if Disney can fleece you for park entry, why can’t Zaanstad do the same? Welcome to the next level of the Tourist Tax Expansion Pack.

The Problem: Too Many Selfie-Stick Wielders

Apparently 2.6 million visitors in 2024 wasn’t “picturesque” enough for the locals. The windmills are feeling the wear and tear, the streets are too crowded, and the peaceful Dutch countryside is now peppered with tourists filming TikToks in awkward poses. The officials are crying “mass tourism crisis,” as though they’ve just discovered that being on every Instagram bucket list might actually backfire. Who knew? It’s like opening a public server in an MMO and then being shocked that your starting area is overrun with griefers.

They even call Zaanse Schans a “symbol of excessive tourism” – the SimCity equivalent of building too many theme parks and wondering why the traffic system collapses. And yes, the real pressing issue is that the “heritage and quality of life” of locals could crumble under the tourist herd. Or so the official quest log says.

The Plan: Lock the Gates

The solution? A charge-and-restrict strategy that would make any free-to-play monetization department clap in approval. From around 2026 (realistically delayed, because of course it will be), you’ll need a ticket to enter. They’re also talking about closing roads and paths – presumably to funnel you through the toll booth like you’re queuing for an overpriced raid dungeon key. Oh, but don’t worry! Locals and certain “special groups” get in for free. Nothing says “welcoming culture” like slamming the door in the face of outsiders while handing locals a shiny VIP pass.

The Logic: Preservation and Profit

They swear this isn’t a cash grab. No, no, no – it’s about “preserving heritage” and “ensuring quality of life.” Absolutely nothing to do with the millions of euros they’ll rake in annually. Those surefire revenue streams will, of course, go toward maintaining buildings, boosting safety, and improving public spaces. A noble cause? Maybe. A convenient side effect? Definitely. It’s like adding “optional” DLC to fund server upkeep – sure, some of it goes to stability, but a chunk is definitely lining the pockets.

Without the resources, they say, the whole place will fall apart in as little as five to seven years. Which is basically them admitting, in MMO terms, that their in-game assets are degrading from overuse, and they need you, the player, to pony up for repair kits.

Reality Check: This Isn’t New

Let’s not pretend Zaanstad just invented this brilliant “pay to enter the outdoors” mechanic. Venice already has a cover charge. Kyoto was talking about it before, Rome’s considered it, and New Zealand wants cash for beach and mountain access. At this rate, farmers are literally putting turnstiles in their fields. We’re sliding toward a world where even oxygen will have a meter attached – DLC: Breath of the Wild.

The Bigger Picture

This is all part of the grand conspiracy – the creeping normalization of charging the public to see anything remotely iconic. Today it’s windmills, tomorrow it’s street corners with “good lighting.” And the really wild bit? Some tourists will completely justify it. Because just like in gaming, once you convince the player base that paying extra is “for the greater good,” they’ll hand over their coins without question – until someone turns the heritage site into a live service monetization model and sells battle passes for the privilege of seeing it at sunset.

Final Verdict

The plan to charge €17.50 per foreign visitor to Zaanse Schans is just the latest symptom of the “monetize all the things” trend sweeping iconic destinations worldwide. Sure, excessive tourism is a genuine problem – like too many raid members pulling the wrong mobs – but slapping an entry fee on a formerly open location feels less like a thoughtful fix and more like someone finding a loot chest they forgot to monetize. Could it work? Yes. Could it also alienate future visitors and make the place feel like a gated museum instead of living history? Absolutely.

Overall impression? Mildly distasteful but sadly inevitable in this modern content-as-product age.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is entirely my opinion.

Article source: Cada vez más lugares empiezan a cobrar por ver sus monumentos turísticos. Los últimos: los molinos de Holanda