Even Amsterdam’s Mayor Can’t Stop People Staying in City: Chart

(Bloomberg) -- Amsterdam Mayor Eberhard van der Laan made an unusual suggestion earlier this year for a man responsible for a major European city: tourists should sleep elsewhere. Residents have been moaning about the visitor influx, blaming them for raising prices, making noise and -- most unforgivably in a cycling-crazed city -- crowding out the bike paths. Sadly for the complainants, few seemed to listen and hotel stays in Amsterdam rose 9.6 percent in the first half, grabbing about a third of all nights booked in the country.

To contact the reporter on this story: Martijn van der Starre in Amsterdam at vanderstarre@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Celeste Perri at cperri@bloomberg.net, Mariajose Vera at mvera1@bloomberg.net, Sheldon Reback